Resonant Dark Matter
Abstract
It is usually assumed that dark matter direct detection is sensitive to a large fraction of the dark matter (DM) velocity distribution. We propose an alternative form of dark matter-nucleus scattering which only probes a narrow range of DM velocities due to the existence of a resonance, a DM-nucleus bound state, in the scattering - resonant dark matter (rDM). The scattering cross section becomes highly element dependent, has increased modulation and as a result can explain the DAMA/LIBRA results whilst not being in conflict with other direct detection experiments. We describe a simple model that realizes the dynamics of rDM, where the DM is the neutral component of a fermionic weak triplet whose charged partners differ in mass by approximately 10 MeV.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0909.2900,
title = {Resonant Dark Matter},
author = {Yang Bai and Patrick J. Fox},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.2900},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
19 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; References added, minor typos corrected, final version in JHEP