Relevance of the CDMSII events for mirror dark matter

TL;DR

This paper explores how mirror dark matter could explain the CDMSII events, suggesting they are consistent with heavy mirror iron interactions and predicting most events occur below 18 keV.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the CDMSII events align with mirror dark matter predictions, especially involving heavy mirror iron, and provides testable predictions for future experiments.

Findings

CDMSII events are consistent with heavy mirror iron interactions.

Mirror dark matter predicts a sharply falling event rate with recoil energy.

Most events are expected below approximately 18 keV.

Abstract

Mirror dark matter offers a framework to explain the existing dark matter direct detection experiments, including the impressive DAMA annual modulation signal. Here we examine the implications of mirror dark matter for experiments like CDMSII/Ge and XENON10 which feature higher recoil energy threshold than the DAMA NaI experiments. We show that the two events seen in the CDMSII/Ge experiment are consistent with the interactions of the anticipated heavy $\sim Fe'$ component. This interpretation of the CDMSII/Ge events is a natural one given that a) mirror dark matter predicts an event rate which is sharply falling with respect to recoil energy and b) that the two observed events are in the low energy region near threshold. Importantly this interpretation of the CDMSII events can be checked by on-going and future experiments, and we hereby predict that the bulk of the events will be in the $E_R \stackrel{<}{\sim} 18$ keV region.