A scheme for the extraction of WIMP-nucleon scattering cross sections from total event rates

TL;DR

This paper introduces an analytical scheme to extract WIMP-nucleon scattering cross sections from total event rates, enabling detailed insights into dark matter interactions in direct detection experiments.

Contribution

It presents a novel analytical method to determine elementary cross sections and their relative signs from experimental data, enhancing understanding of neutralino dark matter.

Findings

Allows extraction of three elementary cross sections from three target measurements

Connects solutions to the sign between proton and neutron spin amplitudes

Facilitates maximum information retrieval on supersymmetric parameter space

Abstract

We propose a scheme that allows to analytically determine the three elementary cross sections and connect the solutions to the relative sign between the proton and the neutron spin scattering amplitudes once the measurements of total event rate from three appropriate targets become available. In this way it is thus possible to extract the maximum information on the supersymmetric parameter space obtainable from direct detection experiments, in the case that the dark matter particle is the lightest neutralino. Our scheme is based on suitably normalized form of the isospin momentum dependent structure functions entering in the spin-dependent elastic neutralino-nucleus cross section. We compare these functions with the commonly used ones and discuss their advantages: in particular, these allow in the spin-dependent cross section to factorize the particle physics degrees of freedom from the momentum transfer dependent nuclear structure functions as it happens in the spin-independent cross section with the nuclear form factor.