Related papers: Dark Matter Search with the Nuclear Isomer Ta-180m
Weak-scale dark matter particles, in collisions with nuclei, can mediate transitions between different nuclear energy levels. In particular, owing to sizeable momentum exchange, dark matter particles can enable de-excitation of nuclear…
Inelastic dark matter and strongly interacting dark matter are poorly constrained by direct detection experiments since they both require the scattering event to deliver energy from the nucleus into the dark matter in order to have…
$^{180m}$Ta is a rare nuclear isomer whose decay has never been observed. Its remarkably long lifetime surpasses the half-lives of all other known $\beta$ and electron capture decays due to the large K-spin differences and small energy…
We propose and evaluate a source-as-detector search for the de-excitation of the long-lived isomer $^{180\mathrm{m}}\mathrm{Ta}$ in natural tantalum (Ta), using a $\gamma$-ray transition-edge-sensor (TES) array. We exploit two capabilities…
$^{\rm {180m}}$Ta is the rarest naturally occurring quasi-stable isotope and the longest lived metastable state which is known. Its possible decay via the $\beta^-$ or the electron capture channel has never been observed. This article…
Astronomical and cosmological observations of the past 80 years build solid evidence that atomic matter makes up only a small fraction of the matter in the universe. The dominant fraction does not interact with electromagnetic radiation,…
Numerous observations point towards the existence of an unknown elementary particle with no electromagnetic interactions, a large population of which was presumably produced in the early stages of the history of the Universe. This so-called…
$^{180m}$Ta is the longest-lived metastable state presently known. Its decay has not been observed yet. In this work, we report a new result on the decay of \mTa obtained with a $2015.12$-g tantalum sample measured for $527.7$ d with an…
The majority of the matter in the universe is still unidentified and under investigation by both direct and indirect means. Many experiments searching for the recoil of dark-matter particles off target nuclei in underground laboratories…
$^{180m}$Ta is a naturally abundant quasi-stable nuclide and the longest-lived nuclear isomer known to date. It is of interest for, among others, the search for dark matter, for the development of a gamma laser and for astrophysics. So far,…
Positive results of dark matter searches in DAMA/NaI and DAMA/LIBRA experiments, being put together with the results of other groups, can imply nontrivial particle physics solutions for cosmological dark matter. Stable particles with charge…
Dark Matter is one of the most intriguing riddles of modern astrophysics. The Standard Cosmological Model implies that only 4.5% of the mass-energy of the Universe is baryonic matter and the remaining 95% is unknown. Of this remainder, 22%…
Direct searches for dark matter lead to serious problems for simple models with stable neutral Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as candidates for dark matter. A possibility is discussed that new stable quarks and charged leptons…
In this work, we present the results of searches for signatures of dark matter decay or annihilation into Standard Model particles, and secret neutrino interactions with dark matter. Neutrinos could be produced in the decay or annihilation…
The cold dark matter may be in a meta-stable state and decays to other particles with a very long lifetime. If the decaying products of the dark matter are weakly interacting, e.g. neutrinos, then it would have little impact on…
We propose a novel mechanism for dark matter to explain the observed annual modulation signal at DAMA/LIBRA which avoids existing constraints from every other dark matter direct detection experiment including CRESST, CDMS, and XENON10. The…
We report on a search for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM) via elastic DM-xenon-nucleus interactions in the XENONnT experiment. We combine datasets from the first and second science campaigns resulting in a total…
The direct detection of dark matter constituents, in particular the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), is central to particle physics and cosmology. In this paper we study WIMP induced transitions from isomeric nuclear states for…
Solving the Dark Matter enigma represents one of the key objectives of contemporary physics. Recent astrophysical and cosmological measurements have unambiguously demonstrated that ordinary matter contributes to less than 5 % of the energy…
We present a search for light dark matter particles through their interactions with atomic electrons and nucleons, utilizing PandaX-4T data with an effective exposure of 1.04 tonne$\cdot$year for ionization-only data and 1.20…