Finding Dark Matter Faster with Explicit Profile Likelihoods
Instrumentation and Detectors2020-11-04v2Cosmology and Nongalactic AstrophysicsInstrumentation and Methods for AstrophysicsHigh Energy Physics - Experiment
Liquid xenon time-projection chambers are the world's most sensitive detectors for a wide range of dark matter candidates. We show that the statistical analysis of their data can be improved by replacing detector response Monte Carlo simulations with an equivalent deterministic calculation. This allows the use of high-dimensional undiscretized models, yielding up to ∼2 times better discrimination of the dominant backgrounds. In turn, this could significantly extend the physics reach of upcoming experiments such as XENONnT and LZ, and bring forward a potential 5σ dark matter discovery by over a year.
@article{arxiv.2003.12483,
title = {Finding Dark Matter Faster with Explicit Profile Likelihoods},
author = {J. Aalbers and B. Pelssers and V. C. Antochi and P. L. Tan and J. Conrad},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.12483},
year = {2020}
}