A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection

Cosmological observations indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be detected directly, via its elastic scattering off target nuclei. Most current direct detection experiments only measure the energy...

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Main Authors: Mayet, F., Green, Anne M., Battat, J.B.R., Billard, J., Bozorgnia, N., Gelmini, G.B., Gondolo, P., Kavanagh, B.J., Lee, S.K., Loomba, D., Monroe, J., Morgan, B., O'Hare, C.A.J., Peter, A.H.G., Phan, N.S., Vahsen, S.E.
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier 2016
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39474/
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author Mayet, F.
Green, Anne M.
Battat, J.B.R.
Billard, J.
Bozorgnia, N.
Gelmini, G.B.
Gondolo, P.
Kavanagh, B.J.
Lee, S.K.
Loomba, D.
Monroe, J.
Morgan, B.
O'Hare, C.A.J.
Peter, A.H.G.
Phan, N.S.
Vahsen, S.E.
author_facet Mayet, F.
Green, Anne M.
Battat, J.B.R.
Billard, J.
Bozorgnia, N.
Gelmini, G.B.
Gondolo, P.
Kavanagh, B.J.
Lee, S.K.
Loomba, D.
Monroe, J.
Morgan, B.
O'Hare, C.A.J.
Peter, A.H.G.
Phan, N.S.
Vahsen, S.E.
author_sort Mayet, F.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Cosmological observations indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be detected directly, via its elastic scattering off target nuclei. Most current direct detection experiments only measure the energy of the recoiling nuclei. However, directional detection experiments are sensitive to the direction of the nuclear recoil as well. Due to the Sun’s motion with respect to the Galactic rest frame, the directional recoil rate has a dipole feature, peaking around the direction of the Solar motion. This provides a powerful tool for demonstrating the Galactic origin of nuclear recoils and hence unambiguously detecting Dark Matter. Furthermore, the directional recoil distribution depends on the WIMP mass, scattering cross section and local velocity distribution. Therefore, with a large number of recoil events it will be possible to study the physics of Dark Matter in terms of particle and astrophysical properties. We review the potential of directional detectors for detecting and characterizing WIMPs.
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spelling nottingham-394742020-05-04T17:45:47Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39474/ A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection Mayet, F. Green, Anne M. Battat, J.B.R. Billard, J. Bozorgnia, N. Gelmini, G.B. Gondolo, P. Kavanagh, B.J. Lee, S.K. Loomba, D. Monroe, J. Morgan, B. O'Hare, C.A.J. Peter, A.H.G. Phan, N.S. Vahsen, S.E. Cosmological observations indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is Dark Matter. Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be detected directly, via its elastic scattering off target nuclei. Most current direct detection experiments only measure the energy of the recoiling nuclei. However, directional detection experiments are sensitive to the direction of the nuclear recoil as well. Due to the Sun’s motion with respect to the Galactic rest frame, the directional recoil rate has a dipole feature, peaking around the direction of the Solar motion. This provides a powerful tool for demonstrating the Galactic origin of nuclear recoils and hence unambiguously detecting Dark Matter. Furthermore, the directional recoil distribution depends on the WIMP mass, scattering cross section and local velocity distribution. Therefore, with a large number of recoil events it will be possible to study the physics of Dark Matter in terms of particle and astrophysical properties. We review the potential of directional detectors for detecting and characterizing WIMPs. Elsevier 2016-04-20 Article PeerReviewed Mayet, F., Green, Anne M., Battat, J.B.R., Billard, J., Bozorgnia, N., Gelmini, G.B., Gondolo, P., Kavanagh, B.J., Lee, S.K., Loomba, D., Monroe, J., Morgan, B., O'Hare, C.A.J., Peter, A.H.G., Phan, N.S. and Vahsen, S.E. (2016) A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection. Physics Reports, 627 . pp. 1-50. ISSN 0370-1573 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370157316001022 doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2016.02.007 doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2016.02.007
spellingShingle Mayet, F.
Green, Anne M.
Battat, J.B.R.
Billard, J.
Bozorgnia, N.
Gelmini, G.B.
Gondolo, P.
Kavanagh, B.J.
Lee, S.K.
Loomba, D.
Monroe, J.
Morgan, B.
O'Hare, C.A.J.
Peter, A.H.G.
Phan, N.S.
Vahsen, S.E.
A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title_full A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title_fullStr A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title_full_unstemmed A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title_short A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
title_sort review of the discovery reach of directional dark matter detection
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39474/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39474/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/39474/