The Poker Face of Inelastic Dark Matter: Prospects at Upcoming Direct Detection Experiments

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the prospects of detecting inelastic dark matter in upcoming experiments, highlighting how uncertainties in experimental and astrophysical parameters significantly affect detection predictions.

Contribution

It analyzes how measurement uncertainties influence the expected signals in direct detection experiments for inelastic dark matter.

Findings

Expected event numbers vary by an order of magnitude due to uncertainties.

XENON100 and CRESST can test DAMA's anomaly within current uncertainties.

Detection prospects are highly sensitive to quenching factors and halo velocity distribution.

Abstract

The XENON100 and CRESST experiments will directly test the inelastic dark matter explanation for DAMA's 8.9? sigma anomaly. This article discusses how predictions for direct detection experiments depend on uncertainties in quenching factor measurements, the dark matter interaction with the Standard Model and the halo velocity distribution. When these uncertainties are accounted for, an order of magnitude variation is found in the number of expected events at CRESST and XENON100.