Related papers: DAMA vs. the annually modulated muon background
The current paradigm for dark matter direct detection is to assume that the dark sector is solely composed of a single particle species. In this short paper, we make the observation that dark matter comprising both a light and a heavy…
Many experiments seek dark matter by detecting relatively low energy nuclear recoils. Yet since events from ordinary physics with energies in the 1-100 KeV range are commonplace, all claims of signals or their absence hinge on exhaustive…
We consider the hypothesis that Dark Matter (DM) has tree-level interactions only with leptons. Such a framework, where DM recoils against electrons bound in atoms, has been proposed as an explanation for the annually modulated…
The DAMA experiment clearly observes a small oscillatory signal. The observed yearly modulation is in phase with the Earth's motion around the Sun. Recent reference [Vavra, 2014] suggested that the DAMA experiment observes a WIMP of much…
We show how constraints on the time integrated event rate from a given dark matter (DM) direct detection experiment can be used to set a stringent constraint on the amplitude of the annual modulation signal in another experiment. The method…
In a 2015 study, particle physicists reported the first observed seasonal variation of multiple muon events in the MINOS Far and Near Detectors, where multiple muon events created by cosmic rays were observed to be more numerous in the…
The interpretation of the DAMA seasonal variation pattern as a Dark Matter (DM) effect rests on the assumption that all sources of variable background have been excluded from the measurement. We have identified an overlooked background that…
Dark matter in the form of particles from a hidden mirror sector has recently been proposed as an explanation for the DAMA annual modulation signal. Here one assumes that there exists a small mixing between photons and mirror photons. We…
For many years annually modulating $\sim$ keV scintillations have been observed in the DAMA/NaI and DAMA/Libra experiments. A dark matter - electron scattering interpretation is now favoured given the stringent constraints on nuclear recoil…
We examine the dark matter interpretation of the modulation signal reported by the DAMA experiment from the perspective of effective field theories displaying Galilean invariance. We consider the most general effective coupling leading to…
Recently published data suggest a possible solar influence on some nuclear decay rates, including evidence for an annual variation attributed to the varying Earth-Sun distance. Here, we consider the possibility that the annual signal seen…
Direct detection experiments, which are designed to detect the scattering of dark matter off nuclei in detectors, are a critical component in the search for the Universe's missing matter. The count rate in these experiments should…
Muons have a similar latency/energy correlation from pion decay as do the neutrinos, and hence in each time-slice in a stroboscopic analysis measurements of their momentum spectra can reduce systematic uncertainties due to flux. There are,…
The DAMA Collaboration has recently analyzed its data of the extensive WIMP direct search (DAMA/NaI) which detected an annual modulation, by taking into account the channelling effect which occurs when an ion traverses a detector with a…
We have measured the correlation of rates in IceCube with long and short term variations in the South Pole atmosphere. The yearly temperature variation in the middle stratosphere (30-60 hPa) is highly correlated with the high energy muon…
Measuring an annual modulation in a direct Dark Matter detection experiment is not only a proof of the existence of WIMPs but can also tell us more about their interaction with standard matter and maybe even their density and velocity in…
The temperature of the upper atmosphere affects the height of primary cosmic ray interactions and the production of high-energy cosmic ray muons which can be detected deep underground. The MINOS far detector at Soudan MN, USA, has collected…
This paper gathers arguments and reasons why muons surviving the Gran Sasso mountain cannot mimic the Dark Matter annual modulation signature exploited by the DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA experiments. A number of these items have already been…
Mirror dark matter provides a simple framework for which to explain the DAMA/Libra annual modulation signal consistently with the null results of the other direct detection experiments. The simplest possibility involves ordinary matter…
We show that models of strongly interacting (SIMP) dark matter built to reproduce the DAMA signal actually cannot account for its time dependence. We discuss the constraints on this type of models coming from direct detection experiments…