3,430 research outputs found
Determining the Mass of Dark Matter Particles with Direct Detection Experiments
In this article I review two data analysis methods for determining the mass
(and eventually the spin-independent cross section on nucleons) of Weakly
Interacting Massive Particles with positive signals from direct Dark Matter
detection experiments: a maximum likelihood analysis with only one experiment
and a model-independent method requiring at least two experiments.
Uncertainties and caveats of these methods will also be discussed.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, 1 reference added, typos fixed, published
version, to appear in the NJP Focus Issue on "Dark Matter and Particle
Physics
Rapidity Gap Events in Squark Pair Production at the LHC
The exchange of electroweak gauginos in the or channel allows squark
pair production at hadron colliders without color exchange between the squarks.
This can give rise to events where little or no energy is deposited in the
detector between the squark decay products. We discuss the potential for
detection of such rapidity gap events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our
numerical analysis is divided into two parts. First, we evaluate in a
simplified framework the rapidity gap signal at the parton level. The second
part covers an analysis with full event simulation using PYTHIA as well as
Herwig++, but without detector simulation. We analyze the transverse energy
deposited between the jets from squark decay, as well as the probability of
finding a third jet in between the two hardest jets. For the mSUGRA benchmark
point SPS1a we find statistically significant evidence for a color singlet
exchange contribution. The systematical differences between current versions of
PYTHIA and HERWIG++ are larger than the physical effect from color singlet
exchange; however, these systematic differences could be reduced by tuning both
Monte Carlo generators on normal QCD di--jet data.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Crystal and magnetic structure of the oxypnictide superconductor LaO(1-x)FxFeAs: evidence for magnetoelastic coupling
High-resolution and high-flux neutron as well as X-ray powder-diffraction
experiments were performed on the oxypnictide series LaO(1-x)FxFeAs with
0<x<0.15 in order to study the crystal and magnetic structure. The magnetic
symmetry of the undoped compound corresponds to those reported for ReOFeAs
(with Re a rare earth) and for AFe2As2 (A=Ba, Sr) materials. We find an ordered
magnetic moment of 0.63(1)muB at 2 K in LaOFeAs, which is significantly larger
than the values previously reported for this compound. A sizable ordered
magnetic moment is observed up to a F-doping of 4.5% whereas there is no
magnetic order for a sample with a F concentration of x=0.06. In the undoped
sample, several interatomic distances and FeAs4 tetrahedra angles exhibit
pronounced anomalies connected with the broad structural transition and with
the onset of magnetism supporting the idea of strong magneto-elastic coupling
in this material.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, regular articl
Effects of Residue Background Events in Direct Dark Matter Detection Experiments on the Determination of the WIMP Mass
In the earlier work on the development of a model-independent data analysis
method for determining the mass of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)
by using measured recoil energies from direct Dark Matter detection experiments
directly, it was assumed that the analyzed data sets are background-free, i.e.,
all events are WIMP signals. In this article, as a more realistic study, we
take into account a fraction of possible residue background events, which pass
all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced events in
our data sets. Our simulations show that, for the determination of the WIMP
mass, the maximal acceptable fraction of residue background events in the
analyzed data sets of O(50) total events is ~20%, for background windows of the
entire experimental possible energy ranges, or in low energy ranges; while, for
background windows in relatively higher energy ranges, this maximal acceptable
fraction of residue background events can not be larger than ~10%. For a WIMP
mass of 100 GeV with 20% background events in the windows of the entire
experimental possible energy ranges, the reconstructed WIMP mass and the
1-sigma statistical uncertainty are ~97 GeV^{+61%}_{-35%} (~94
GeV^{+55%}_{-33%} for background-free data sets).Comment: 27 pages, 22 eps figures; v2: revised version for publication,
references added and update
The Higgs Sector in a Extension of the MSSM
We consider the Higgs sector in an extension of the MSSM with extra SM
singlets, involving an extra gauge symmetry, in which the
domain-wall problem is avoided and the effective parameter is decoupled
from the new gauge boson mass. The model involves a rich Higgs
structure very different from that of the MSSM. In particular, there are large
mixings between Higgs doublets and the SM singlets, significantly affecting the
Higgs spectrum, production cross sections, decay modes, existing exclusion
limits, and allowed parameter range. Scalars considerably lighter than the LEP2
bound (114 GeV) are allowed, and the range is both allowed
and theoretically favored. Phenomenologically, we concentrate our study on the
lighter (least model-dependent, yet characteristic) Higgs particles with
significant SU(2)-doublet components to their wave functions, for the case of
no explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector. We consider their spectra,
including the dominant radiative corrections to their masses from the top/stop
loop. We computed their production cross sections and reexamine the existing
exclusion limits at LEP2. We outline the searching strategy for some
representative scenarios at a future linear collider. We emphasize that
gaugino, Higgsino, and singlino decay modes are indicative of extended models
and have been given little attention. We present a comprehensive list of model
scenarios in the Appendices.Comment: 49 pages, 17 figure
On the Neutralino as Dark Matter Candidate - I. Relic Abundance
The neutralino relic abundance is evaluated for a wide range of the
neutralino mass, , by taking into
account the full set of final states in the neutralino-neutralino annihilation.
The analysis is performed in the Minimal SuSy Standard Model; it is not
restricted by stringent GUT assumptions but only constrained by present
experimental bounds. We also discuss phenomenological aspects which are
employed in the companion paper (II. Direct Detection) where the chances for a
successful search for dark matter neutralino are investigated.Comment: (10 pages plain TeX, 8 figures not included, available from the
authors) DFTT-37/9
Relic Abundance of Asymmetric Dark Matter
We investigate the relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter particles that
were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe. The standard analytic
calculation of the symmetric Dark Matter is generalized to the asymmetric case.
We calculate the asymmetry required to explain the observed Dark Matter relic
abundance as a function of the annihilation cross section. We show that
introducing an asymmetry always reduces the indirect detection signal from WIMP
annihilation, although it has a larger annihilation cross section than
symmetric Dark Matter. This opens new possibilities for the construction of
realistic models of MeV Dark Matter.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, Accepted by JCA
Radiative Neutralino Decay in Supersymmetric Models
The radiative decay Z2-> Z1 gamma proceeds at the one-loop level in the MSSM.
It can be the dominant decay mode for the second lightest neutralino Z2 in
certain regions of parameter space of supersymmetric models, where either a
dynamical and/or kinematic enhancement of the branching fraction occurs. We
perform an updated numerical study of this decay mode in both the minimal
supergravity model (mSUGRA) and in the more general MSSM framework. In mSUGRA,
the largest rates are found in the ``focus point'' region, where the mu
parameter becomes small, and the lightest neutralinos become higgsino-like; in
this case, radiative branching fraction can reach the 1% level. Our MSSM
analysis includes a scan over independent positive and negative gaugino masses.
We show branching fractions can reach the 10-100% level even for large values
of the parameter tan(beta). These regions of parameter space are realized in
supergravity models with non-universal gaugino masses. Measurement of the
radiative neutralino branching fraction may help pin down underlying parameters
of the fundamental supersymmetric model.Comment: 19 page JHEP file with 8 PS figures; previous version contained
figure misplacemen
SUSY Dark Matter in the Universe- Theoretical Direct Detection Rates
Exotic dark matter together with the vacuum energy or cosmological constant
seem to dominate in the Universe. An even higher density of such matter seems
to be gravitationally trapped in the Galaxy. Thus its direct detection is
central to particle physics and cosmology. Current supersymmetric models
provide a natural dark matter candidate which is the lightest supersymmetric
particle (LSP). Such models combined with fairly well understood physics like
the quark substructure of the nucleon and the nuclear structure (form factor
and/or spin response function), permit the evaluation of the event rate for
LSP-nucleus elastic scattering. The thus obtained event rates are, however,
very low or even undetectable. So it is imperative to exploit the modulation
effect, i.e. the dependence of the event rate on the earth's annual motion.
Also it is useful to consider the directional rate, i.e its dependence on the
direction of the recoiling nucleus. In this paper we study such a modulation
effect both in non directional and directional experiments. We calculate both
the differential and the total rates using both isothermal, symmetric as well
as only axially asymmetric, and non isothermal, due to caustic rings, velocity
distributions. We find that in the symmetric case the modulation amplitude is
small. The same is true for the case of caustic rings. The inclusion of
asymmetry, with a realistic enhanced velocity dispersion in the galactocentric
direction, yields an enhanced modulation effect, especially in directional
experiments.Comment: 17 LATEX pages, 1 table and 6 ps figures include
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