Neutrino roof: Single-scatter cross section ceilings in dark matter direct detection experiments

Raj, N and Mondal, B (2024) Neutrino roof: Single-scatter cross section ceilings in dark matter direct detection experiments. In: Physical Review D, 110 (9).

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Abstract

We identify the maximum cross sections probed by single-scatter weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) searches in dark matter direct detection. Owing to Poisson fluctuations in scatter multiplicity, these ceilings scale logarithmically with mass for heavy dark matter and often lie in regions probed by multiscatter searches. Using a generalized formula for single-scatter event rates we recast WIMP searches by the quintal-to-tonne scale detectors XENON1T, XENONnT, LZ, PANDAX-II, PANDAX-4T, DarkSide-50, and DEAP-3600 to obtain ceilings and floors up to a few 1017 GeV mass and 10-22 cm2 per nucleus cross section. We do this for coherent, geometric, isospin-violating xenophobic and argophobic spin-independent scattering, and neutron-only and proton-only spin-dependent scattering. Future large-exposure detectors would register an almost irreducible background of atmospheric neutrinos that would determine a dark matter sensitivity ceiling that we call the "neutrino roof,"in analogy with the well-studied "neutrino floor."Accounting for this background, we estimate the reaches of the 10-100 tonne scale DarkSide-20k, DARWIN/XLZD, PANDAX-xT, and Argo, which would probe many decades of unconstrained parameter space up to the Planck mass, as well as of 103-104 tonne scale noble liquid detectors that have been proposed in synergy with neutrino experiments. © 2024 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review D
Publisher:	American Physical Society
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to authors.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Centre for High Energy Physics
Date Deposited:	17 Dec 2024 05:44
Last Modified:	17 Dec 2024 05:44
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/87128

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