Publications

Order by: publication date number of citations

• Annual modulation of dark matter signals: Experimental results and new ideas

  Felix Kahlhoefer

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 004 (2023) · published 3 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  Direct detection experiments searching for the scattering of dark matter particles off nuclei expect an annual modulation in their event rate. In this presentation, I will review the theoretical predictions and the experimental status of the search for annual modulations, with a focus on ongoing and planned experiments using NaI detectors. In particular, I will discuss the interpretation of the DAMA signal and related model-building efforts.

• Characterisation of low background CaWO$_4$ crystals for CRESST-III

  A. Kinast, G. Angloher, S. Banik, G. Benato, A. Bento, A. Bertolini, R. Breier, C. Bucci, J. Burkhart, L. Canonica, A. D'Addabbo, S. Di Lorenzo, L. Einfalt, A. Erb, F. v. Feilitzsch, N. Ferreiro Iachellini, S. Fichtinger, D. Fuchs, A. Fuss, A. Garai, V.M. Ghete, S. Gerster, P. Gorla, P.V. Guillaumon, S. Gupta, D. Hauff, M. Ješkovský, J. Jochum, M. Kaznacheeva, H. Kluck, H. Kraus, A. Langenkämper, M. Mancuso, L. Marini, L. Meyer, V. Mokina, A. Nilima, M. Olmi, T. Ortmann, C. Pagliarone, L. Pattavina, F. Petricca, W. Potzel, P. Povinec, F. Pröbst, F. Pucci, F. Reindl, J. Rothe, K. Schäffner, J. Schieck, D. Schmiedmayer, S. Schönert, C. Schwertner, M. Stahlberg, L. Stodolsky, C. Strandhagen, R. Strauss, I. Usherov, F. Wagner, M. Willers, V. Zema (CRESST Collaboration)

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 031 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The CRESST-III experiment aims at the direct detection of dark matter particles via their elastic scattering off nuclei in a scintillating CaWO$_4$ target crystal. For many years CaWO$_4$ crystals have successfully been produced in-house at Technische Universität München with a focus on high radiopurity. To further improve the CaWO$_4$ crystals, an extensive chemical purification of the raw materials has been performed and the crystal TUM93 was produced from this powder. We present results from an $\alpha$-decay rate analysis performed on 344 days of data collected in the ongoing CRESST-III data-taking campaign. The $\alpha$-decay rate could significantly be reduced.

• remoTES: A new design for the cryogenic NaI detectors of the COSINUS experiment

  L. Einfalt, G. Angloher, Mukund Raghunath Bharadwaj, I. Dafinei, N. Di Marco, F. Ferroni, S. Fichtinger, A. Filipponi, T. Frank, M. Friedl, A. Fuss, Z. Ge, M. Heikinheimo, K. Huitu, M. Kellermann, R. Maji , M. Mancuso, L. Pagnanini, F. Petricca, S. Pirro, F. Pröbst, G. Profeta, A. Puiu, F. Reindl, K. Schäffner, J. Schieck, D. Schmiedmayer, C. Schwertner, M. Stahlberg, A. Stendahl, M. Stukel , F. Wagner, S. Yue, V. Zema, Y. Zhu

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 033 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The increasing statistical significance of the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal is a cause for tension in the field of dark matter direct detection. The COSINUS experiment aims at a model-independent cross-check of the DAMA/LIBRA signal claim, using NaI crystals operated as cryogenic scintillating calorimeters at millikelvin temperatures. Such a setup enables measurement of phonon and scintillation light signals via Transition Edge Sensors (TESs) and allows particle discrimination on an event-by-event basis. The non-standard properties of NaI cause an obstacle when attaching a TES directly onto the surface of the crystal. This can be overcome with the ``remoTES'' design, where the TES is attached to an external wafer crystal. We present the results from a first successful operation of NaI and other crystals as cryogenic calorimeters with the remoTES design.

• Dark matter or millisecond pulsars? A deep learning-based analysis of the Fermi Galactic Centre Excess

  Florian List, Nicholas L. Rodd, Geraint F. Lewis

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 034 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The $\gamma$-ray Galactic Centre Excess (GCE) remains one of the few observed high-energy signals for which a dark matter (DM) origin is a plausible explanation. We present a deep learning-based analysis of the $\gamma$-ray sky in the Galactic Centre region, carefully accounting for the mathematical degeneracy between faint point-sources (PSs) such as millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and DM-like Poisson emission. Using recent models for the Galactic foregrounds, we find that relatively few bright PSs just below Fermi's detection threshold seem unlikely to explain the GCE, although we continue to find evidence for PSs. Looking ahead, further improvements in the modelling of the $\gamma$-ray sky will be crucial for distinguishing between a DM-like and point-like morphology of the signal.

• Probabilistic deconstruction of a theory of gravity, part II: Curved space

  Sunok Josephine Suh

  SciPost Phys. 16, 012 (2024) · published 17 January 2024 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  We propose that the underlying context of holographic duality and the Ryu-Takayanagi formula is that the volume measure of spacetime is a probability measure constrained by quantum dynamics. We define quantum stochastic processes using joint quantum distributions which are realized in a quantum system as expectation values of products of projectors. In anti-de Sitter JT gravity, we show that Einstein's equations arise from the evolution of probability under the quantum stochastic process induced by the boundary, with the area of compactified space in the gravitational theory identified as a probability density evolving under the quantum process. Extrapolating these and related results in flat JT gravity found in [SciPost Phys. 15, 174 (2023)], we conjecture that general relativity arises in the semi-classical limit of the evolution of probability with respect to quantum stochastic processes.

• Axion-like particle as cold dark matter via the misalignment mechanism with PQ symmetry unbroken during inflation

  Pawel Kozow, Marek Olechowski

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 038 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The QCD axion and axion-like particles (ALPs) are well motivated candidates for Cold Dark Matter (CDM). Such models may be divided into two classes depending on whether the associated Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry is broken or not during inflation. The latter case is usually considered to be quite simple with relic density depending only on the corresponding decay constant and with no constraints from the known bounds on isocurvature perturbations. We will show that the situation is much more complicated. We will discuss conditions which should be fulfilled by ALP models with U(1) unbroken during inflation to be phenomenologically interesting.

• Approaching the first any light particle search II science run

  Aaron D. Spector for the ALPS Collaboration

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 039 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  The Any Light Particle Search II (ALPS II) is a light-shining-through-a-wall (LSW) experiment based at DESY in Hamburg, Germany, that will search for axions and axion-like particles down to the coupling of the axion to two photons of $g_{a\gamma\gamma}$ >2$\times10^{-11}$ GeV$^{-1}$ for masses below 0.1 meV. ALPS II will use two strings of superconducting dipole magnets that are over one hundred meters in length, as well as optical cavities before and after the wall to boost the effective signal rate of the regenerated photons by more than 12 orders of magnitude when compared to previous generations of LSW experiments. Data taking with a simplified optical system is expected to begin in early 2023.

• Searching for wave-like dark matter with QSHS

  Ian Bailey, Bhaswati Chakraborty, Gemma Chapman, Edward J. Daw, John Gallop, Gianluca Gregori, Edward Hardy, Ling Hao, Edward Laird, Peter Leek, John March-Russell, Phil Meeson, Seaárbhan Ó Peatáin, Yuri Pashkin, Mitchell G. Perry, Michele Piscitelli, Edward Romans, Subir Sarkar, Paul J. Smith, Ningqiang Song, Mahesh Soni, Boon K. Tan, Stephen West, Stafford Withington

  SciPost Phys. Proc. 12, 040 (2023) · published 4 July 2023 | Toggle abstract · pdf

  In 2021 the Quantum Sensors for the Hidden Sector (QSHS) collaboration was founded in the UK and received funding to develop and demonstrate quantum devices with the potential to detect hidden sector particles in the $\mu$eV to 100 $\mu$eV mass window. The collaboration has been developing a range of devices. It is building a high-field, low-temperature facility at the University of Sheffield to characterise and test the devices in a haloscope geometry. This paper introduces the collaboration's motivation, aims, and progress.