Dark Matter Interpretations for Direct Detection

Tuesday 9 Aug 2016, 08:00 → 21:45 WET

Lincoln College, Oxford

David G. Cerdeño (IPPP, Durham University), Paolo Beltrame (University of Edinburgh), Steven Worm, Çiğdem İşsever (Oxford)

Dark Matter Interpretations for Direct Detection will be held at Lincoln College, Oxford on August 9, 2016. The workshop will focus on the recent use of Effective Field Theories and Simplified Models to characterise non-relativistic, momentum-dependent interactions of dark matter in direct detection experiments. In addition we plan to discuss the uncertainties introduced by these new techniques, the underpinning theoretical and astrophysical assumptions, and how each of these influence the final dark matter interpretation.

 

The Workshop is supported by:

                 

Morning Session

1 Welcome/Intro

Slides 160809_Workshop_Intro.pdf

2 SuperCDMS @ EFT

Speaker: Dr David G. Cerdeño (IPPP, Durham University)

Slides 2016-08-Cerdeno.pdf

3 Non-relativistic effective theory approach to dark matter direct detection

Direct detection (DD) experiments will play a pivotal role in shedding light on the nature of dark matter during the next decade. An effective theory approach is a solid strategy to interpret DD experiments when the momentum transferred in the dark matter scattering by nuclei is small compared to the mass of the particle mediating the interaction. In this talk I compare a recently developed non-relativistic effective theory for dark matter-nucleon interactions to current DD data, including the observation of a modulation signal in the nuclear recoil energy spectrum reported by the DAMA collaboration. Emphasis will be placed on the comparison between the proposed approach and the standard paradigm.

Speaker: Riccardo Catena

Slides oxford2016.pdf

10:50 (coffee)

4 An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the LUX Dark Matter Search

Speaker: Dr Nicole Larsen

Slides larsen_dminterp2016.pdf

5 Renormalization group effects in Dark Matter direct detection

Speaker: Fady Bishara (University of Oxford)

Slides 2016-08-09_RGDM_DMIDD.pdf

12:30 Lunch

Afternoon Session

6 Dark matter effective field theory scattering in the XE100 detector

Speaker: Ran Itay

Slides EFTDM.pptx

7 Prospects for dark matter detection with inelastic transitions of xenon

Dark matter can scatter and excite a nucleus to a low-lying excitation in a direct detection experiment. This signature is distinct from the canonical elastic scattering signal because the inelastic signal also contains the energy deposited from the subsequent prompt de-excitation of the nucleus. A measurement of the elastic and inelastic signal will allow a single experiment to distinguish between a spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction. For the first time, we characterise the inelastic signal for two-phase xenon detectors in which dark matter inelastically scatters off the Xe-129 or Xe-131 isotope. We do this by implementing a realistic simulation of a typical tonne-scale two-phase xenon detector and by carefully estimating the relevant background signals. With our detector simulation, we explore whether the inelastic signal from the axial-vector interaction is detectable with upcoming tonne-scale detectors. We find that two-phase detectors allow for some discrimination between signal and background so that it is possible to detect dark matter that inelastically scatters off either the Xe-129 or Xe-131 isotope for dark matter particles that are heavier than approximately 100 GeV. If, after two years of data, the XENON1T search for elastic scattering nuclei finds no evidence for dark matter, the possibility of ever detecting an inelastic signal from the axial-vector interaction will be almost entirely excluded.

Speaker: Christopher McCabe

Slides McCabe_exciting.pdf

8 Leading corrections to spin-independent WIMP scattering off nuclei

Speaker: Javier Menéndez

Slides menendez_oxford.pdf

15:00 (coffee)

9 EFT/simplified models

Speaker: Mr Uli Haisch (Oxford University)

Slides Lincoln2016.pdf

10 Impact of astrophysical uncertainties on WIMP direct detection

Speaker: Prof. Anne Green (University of Nottingham)

Slides Green_Oxford.pdf

11 Quantifying compatibility among WIMP direct search data in a halo-independent way

We propose a novel halo-independent way of reporting the level of compatibility among WIMP direct search data sets. The main ingredient of the method is 'plausibility region', where any halo-function that can bring a certain level of compatibility should be fully contained in. The construction of the region is based on a new test statistic called "constrained parameter goodness-of-fit", which is a modification of parameter goodness-of-fit designed to gauge mutual compatibility among data sets. The method can be used to further exclude the region inside the pointwise confidence band constructed from a global likelihood. As a demonstration, we apply the method to CDMS-II-Si and SuperCDMS data for WIMPs with elastic or exothermic inelastic SI interactions.

Speaker: Ji-haeng Huh

Slides Global_EHI_Oxford2016.pdf

12 Dark Matter Detectors and the Neutrino Wall

Speaker: Malcolm Fairbairn

Slides workshopoxfordaug2016fairbairn.pptx

13 closeout/discussion

Slides comments.pdf

19:00 Workshop Dinner

https://www.haraldjoergens.com/panoramas/lincoln-college/files/index.html#node2