7 research outputs found
Scintillation and charge extraction from the tracks of energetic electrons in superfluid helium-4
An energetic electron passing through liquid helium causes ionization along
its track. The ionized electrons quickly recombine with the resulting positive
ions, which leads to the production of prompt scintillation light. By applying
appropriate electric fields, some of the ionized electrons can be separated
from their parent ions. The fraction of the ionized electrons extracted in a
given applied field depends on the separation distance between the electrons
and the ions. We report the determination of the mean electron-ion separation
distance for charge pairs produced along the tracks of beta particles in
superfluid helium at 1.5 K by studying the quenching of the scintillation light
under applied electric fields. Knowledge of this mean separation parameter will
aid in the design of particle detectors that use superfluid helium as a target
material.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure
The ZZ' kinetic mixing in the light of the recent direct and indirect dark matter searches
Several constructions, of stringy origins or not, generate abelian gauge
extensions of the Standard Model (SM). Even if the particles of the SM are not
charged under this extra , one cannot avoid the presence of a kinetic
mixing between and the hypercharge . In this work, we
constraint drastically this kinetic mixing, taking into account the recent
experimental data from accelerator physics, direct detection and indirect
detection of dark matter. We show that the region respecting WMAP and
experimental constraints is now very narrowed along the pole line where
, being the gauge boson associated to the extra
.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, final version to appear in JCA
Dark Matter attempts for CoGeNT and DAMA
Recently, the CoGeNT collaboration presented a positive signal for an annual
modulation in their data set. In light of the long standing annual modulation
signal in DAMA/LIBRA, we analyze the compatibility of both of these signal
within the hypothesis of dark matter (DM) scattering on nuclei, taking into
account existing experimental constraints. We consider the cases of elastic and
inelastic scattering with either spin-dependent or spin-independent coupling to
nucleons. We allow for isospin violating interactions as well as for light
mediators. We find that there is some tension between the size of the
modulation signal and the time-integrated event excess in CoGeNT, making it
difficult to explain both simultaneously. Moreover, within the wide range of DM
interaction models considered, we do not find a simultaneous explanation of
CoGeNT and DAMA/LIBRA compatible with constraints from other experiments.
However, in certain cases part of the data can be made consistent. For example,
the modulation signal from CoGeNT becomes consistent with the total rate and
with limits from other DM searches at 90% CL (but not with the DAMA/LIBRA
signal) if DM scattering is inelastic spin-independent with just the right
couplings to protons and neutrons to reduce the scattering rate on xenon.
Conversely the DAMA/LIBRA signal (but not CoGeNT) can be explained by
spin-dependent inelastic DM scattering.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figure
Testing Newton/GR, MoND and quantised inertia on wide binaries
Wide binary stars are within the low-acceleration regime in which galactic
rotation curves deviate from Newtonian or general relativistic predictions. It
has recently been observed that their rotation rates are similarly anomalous in
a way that dark matter cannot explain, since it must be smooth on these small
scales to fit galaxy rotation curves. Here, it is shown that Newtonian/GR
models cannot predict these wide binaries since dark matter cannot be applied.
It is also shown that MoND cannot predict these systems. However, a model which
assumes that inertia is due to Unruh radiation made inhomogeneous in space by
relativistic horizons (QI, quantised inertia) can predict these wide binaries,
and it has the advantage of not needing an adjustable parameter.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure. Accepted by Astrophysics and Space Science on
26/7/201
Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross sections from the XENON10 experiment
XENON10 is an experiment to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which may comprise the bulk of the nonbaryonic dark matter in our Universe. We report new results for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions with 129Xe and 131Xe from 58.6 live days of operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Based on the nonobservation of a WIMP signal in 5.4 kg of fiducial liquid xenon mass, we exclude previously unexplored regions in the theoretically allowed parameter space for neutralinos. We also exclude a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass in the range of ∼10  GeV/c2–2  TeV/c2 as a dark matter candidate under standard assumptions for its density and distribution in the galactic halo