Related papers: Muon-induced neutrons do not explain the DAMA data
The DAMA/LIBRA experiment searches for evidence of Dark Matter scattering off nuclei. Data from DAMA show 9.2 sigma evidence for an annual modulation, consistent with Dark Matter having a cross section around 2x10^(-40) cm^2. However this…
We estimate rates of solar neutrino-induced neutrons in a DAMA/LIBRA-like detector setup, and find that the needed contribution to explain the annual modulation would require neutrino-induced neutron cross sections several orders of…
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…
The DAMA/LIBRA experiment shows $9.5 \sigma$ evidence for an annual modulation in the $(1-6)~ {\rm keV}$ energy range, strongly suggesting that the observed modulation has the dark matter origin. However, the conventional interpretation in…
Among the direct search experiments for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter, the DAMA experiment observed an annual modulation signal interpreted as WIMP interactions with a significance of 9.2$\sigma$. Recently, Jonathan…
The production of neutrons by cosmic-ray muons at large depths underground is discussed. The most recent versions of the muon propagation code MUSIC, and particle transport code FLUKA are used to evaluate muon and neutron fluxes. The…
The persistence of the DAMA/LIBRA (DAMA) modulation over the past two decades has been a source of great contention within the dark matter community. The DAMA collaboration reports a persistent, modulating event rate within their setup of…
Next generation low-background experiments require a detailed understanding of all possible radiation backgrounds. One important radiation source are muon-induced neutrons. Their production processes are up to now not fully understood. New…
We provide a comprehensive study of the cosmic-ray muon flux and induced activity as a function of overburden along with a convenient parameterization of the salient fluxes and differential distributions for a suite of underground…
A hypothesis is proposed to explain the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA puzzle. Introduced into the DAMA/LIBRA shielding is a purge gas of nominally high-purity nitrogen, which under this hypothesis contains argon impurities. Argon is introduced…
The DAMA dark matter search experiment observes a statistically significant percent-level variation of its low-energy count rate with a period of one year. In this note we recall some of the arguments which challenge the hypothesis that the…
A new experiment to quantitatively measure neutrons induced by cosmic-ray muons in selected high-Z materials is introduced. The design of the Muon-Induced Neutron Indirect Detection EXperiment, MINIDEX, and the results from its first data…
We present the first measurements of the muon-induced neutron flux at the Boulby Underground Laboratory. The experiment was carried out with an 0.73 tonne liquid scintillator that also served as an anticoincidence system for the ZEPLIN-II…
Physics at a multi-TeV muon collider needs a change of perspective for the detector design due to the large amount of background induced by muon beam decays. Preliminary studies, based on simulated data, on the composition and the…
We report on a comparison study of the Monte Carlo packages GEANT4 and FLUKA for simulating neutron production by muons penetrating deep underground. GEANT4 is found to generate fewer neutrons at muon energies above ~100 GeV, by at most a…
The aim of the current work is a detailed time-series analysis of the data from Dark Matter direct detection experiments as well as related datasets. We examine recent claims that the cosmic ray muon flux can be responsible for generating…
This article gives a point of view on the studies of the muon-induced background for the underground experiments using a liquid scintillator detectors. The results obtained are in good agreement with the data, especially for the neutron…
A dedicated analysis of the muon-induced background in the EDELWEISS dark matter search has been performed on a data set acquired in 2009 and 2010. The total muon flux underground in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) was measured…
The DAMA/LIBRA collaboration has reported the observation of an annual modulation in the event rate that has been attributed to dark matter interactions over the last two decades. However, even though tremendous efforts to detect similar…
We present a detailed analysis of the neutrino-induced muon signals coming from neutralino pair-annihilations inside the Sun and the Earth with particular emphasis for light neutralinos. The theoretical model considered is an effective MSSM…