Effects of Residue Background Events in Direct Detection Experiments on Identifying WIMP Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper investigates how residual background events in direct dark matter detection experiments affect the accuracy of determining WIMP properties like mass and coupling, emphasizing the importance of background considerations.

Contribution

It introduces a model-independent analysis approach that accounts for small fractions of background events in WIMP property estimation.

Findings

Residue backgrounds can bias WIMP mass determination.

Background events impact the measurement of WIMP-nucleon couplings.

The study highlights the need for careful background discrimination in experiments.

Abstract

We reexamine the model-independent data analysis methods for extracting properties of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) by using data (measured recoil energies) from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly and, as a more realistic study, consider a small fraction of residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced signals in the analyzed data sets. In this talk, the effects of residue backgrounds on the determination of the WIMP mass as well as the spin-independent WIMP coupling on nucleons will be discussed.