Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Disentangling sub-GeV dark matter from the diffuse supernova neutrino background using Hyper-Kamiokande

  Sandra Robles

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 065 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The upcoming Hyper-Kamiokande (HyperK) experiment is expected to detect the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). This requires to ponder all possible sources of background. Sub-GeV dark matter (DM) which annihilates into neutrinos is a potential background that has not been considered so far. We simulate DSNB and DM signals, as well as backgrounds in the HyperK detector. We find that DM-induced neutrinos could indeed alter the extraction of the correct values of the parameters of interest for DSNB physics. Since the DSNB is an isotropic signal, and DM originates primarily from the Galactic centre, we show that this effect could be alleviated with an on-off analysis.

  1 citation

• ELOISE - Reliable background simulation at sub-keV energies

  Holger Kluck

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 064 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  CaWO$_4$ and Al$_2$O$_3$ are well-established target materials used by experiments searching for rare events like the elastic scattering off of a hypothetical Dark Matter particle. In recent years, experiments have reached detection thresholds for nuclear recoils at the 10 eV-scale. At this energy scale, a reliable Monte Carlo simulation of the expected background is crucial. However, none of the publicly available general-purpose simulation packages are validated at this energy scale and for these targets. The recently started ELOISE project aims to provide reliable simulations of electromagnetic particle interactions for this use case by obtaining experimental reference data, validating the simulation code against them, and, if needed, calibrating the code to the reference data.

• Influence of Geant4 physics list on simulation accuracy and performance

  Róbert Breier, Alexander Fuss, Holger Kluck, Valentyna Mokina, Veronika Palušová, Pavel Povinec

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 063 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  A main goal of current low background physics is the search for rare and novel phenomena beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, e.g. the scattering off of a potential Dark Matter particle inside a CaWO$_4$ crystal or the neutrinoless double beta decay of Ge nucleus. The success of such searches depends on a reliable background prediction via Monte Carlo simulations. A widely used toolkit to construct these simulations is GEANT4, which offers a wide choice of physics models, so-called physics lists. To facilitate the selection of physics lists for simulations of CaWO$_4$ and Ge targets, we quantify their impact on the total energy deposition for several test cases.

• Impact of nuclear structure from shell model calculations on nuclear responses to WIMP elastic scattering for $^{19}$F and $^{nat}$Xe targets

  Raghda Abdel Khaleq, Cedric Simenel, Andrew E. Stuchbery

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 062 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) is one approach used for describing the interaction of WIMPs with ordinary matter. Among other factors, these interactions are expected to be affected by the structure of the atomic nuclei in the target. The sensitivity of the nuclear response components of the WIMP-nucleus scattering amplitude is investigated using shell model calculations for $^{19}$F and $^{nat}$Xe. Resulting integrated nuclear response values are shown to be sensitive to some specifics of the nuclear structure calculations.

• Photomultiplier characterisation and its impact on background for SABRE South

  William J. D. Melbourne, Owen Stanley, Phillip Urquijo, Madeleine J. Zurowski

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 061 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  SABRE (Sodium iodide with Active Background REjection) South is a NaI(Tl) based dark matter direct detection experiment located at the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) [J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 2156, 012064 (2021), arXiv:2205.13849]. It is designed to detect an annual modulation of WIMP recoils as an independent replication of the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA modulation signal. SABRE South will have a low energy threshold of 1 keV in the NaI(Tl) crystal detector and a low experimental background. This requires precise characterisation of the photomultipliers used to understand both their sensitivity at low thresholds and their contribution to the background. We report on the photomultiplier characterisation test bench developed for the crystal detector photomultipliers including studies of the single photon response, transit time, and dark noise. A specific focus is on estimating the contribution to the experimental background of coincident photomultiplier noise due to its predominance at low energy and inability to be modelled using traditional MC simulation.

  1 citation

• Self-similar solutions for fuzzy dark matter

  Raquel Galazo-Garcia, Philippe Brax, Patrick Valageas

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 060 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Self-similar solutions for fuzzy dark matter are very different from their counterparts in the standard cold dark matter model. In contrast to the familiar hierarchical collapse of the current model for structure formation, they correspond to an inverse hierarchical blow-up. This fact highlights the gravitational cooling process, which in the absence of dissipation, allows the system to eject excess energy through the intermittent expulsion of clumps of matter. These surprising behaviours are due to the wave properties of the Schrödinger equation and to the quantum pressure. These features are printed in the Eulerian density-velocity representation of the nonrelativistic scalar field, or in the Lagrangian representation in the mass-shell trajectories.

• Self-interacting dark matter on small and large scales

  Camila A. Correa

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 059 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In the self-interacting dark matter paradigm (hereafter SIDM), dark matter (DM) is assumed to have non-gravitational interactions with itself. SIDM has been constrained by observations of galaxy clusters. More recently, measurements of large DM densities at the center of the Milky Way's galaxy satellites are indicating that DM-DM interactions can potentially induce gravothermal core collapse. In this proceeding an overview of the combined measurements of cluster-size galaxies and kinematics of local satellite galaxies is used to argue that DM interactions should depend on the relative velocity of the DM particles.

• Testing the mean field theory of scalar field dark matter

  Andrew Eberhardt, Alvaro Zamora, Michael Kopp, Tom Abel

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 058 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Scalar field dark matter offers an interesting alternative to the traditional WIMP dark matter picture. Astrophysical and cosmological simulations are useful to constraining the mass of the dark matter particle in this model. This is particularly true at low mass where the wavelike nature of the dark matter particle manifests on astrophysical scales. These simulations typical use a classical field approximation. In this work, we look at extending these simulations to include quantum corrections. We look into both the ways in which large corrections impact the predictions of scalar field dark matter, and the timescales on which these corrections grow large. Corrections tend to lessen density fluctuations and increase the effect of "quantum pressure". During collapse, these corrections grow exponentially, quantum corrections would become important in about $\sim 30$ dynamical times. This implies that the predictions of classical field simulations may differ from those with quantum corrections for systems with short dynamical times.

• Improved treatment of dark matter capture in compact stars

  Sandra Robles

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 057 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Compact stellar objects are promising cosmic laboratories to test the nature of dark matter (DM). DM captured by the strong gravitational field of these stellar remnants transfers kinetic energy to the star during the collision. This can have various effects such as anomalous heating of old compact stars. The proper calculation of the DM capture rate is key to derive bounds on DM interactions in any scenario involving DM accretion in a star. We improve former calculations, which rely on approximations, for both white dwarfs (WDs) and neutron stars (NSs). We account for the stellar structure, gravitational focusing, relativistic kinematics, Pauli blocking, realistic form factors, and strong interactions (NSs). Considering DM capture by scattering off either ions or degenerate electrons in WDs, we show that old WDs in DM-rich environments could probe the elusive sub-GeV mass regime for both DM-nucleon and DM-electron scattering. In NSs, DM can be captured via collisions with strongly interacting baryons or relativistic leptons. We project the NS sensitivity to DM-nucleon and DM-lepton scattering cross sections which greatly exceeds that of direct detection experiments, especially for low mass DM.

• Mergers as a probe of particle dark matter

  Anupam Ray

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 056 (2023) · published 5 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Black holes below Chandrasekhar mass limit (1.4 $M_{\odot}$) can not be produced via any standard stellar evolution. Recently, gravitational wave experiments have also discovered unusually low mass black holes whose origin is yet to be known. We propose a simple yet novel formation mechanism of such low mass black holes. Non-annihilating particle dark matter, owing to their interaction with stellar nuclei, can gradually accumulate inside compact stars, and eventually swallows them to low mass black holes, ordinarily impermissible by the Chandrasekhar limit. We point out several avenues to test this proposal, concentrating on the cosmic evolution of the binary merger rates.