DAMA and CoGeNT without astrophysical uncertainties

TL;DR

This paper compares annual modulation signals from CoGeNT and DAMA experiments assuming dark matter scattering, without relying on astrophysical uncertainties, and finds certain dark matter models are strongly disfavoured.

Contribution

It provides a model-independent comparison of CoGeNT and DAMA signals and constrains dark matter properties without astrophysical assumptions.

Findings

DM of 5-14 GeV mass is strongly disfavoured

Isospin-violating DM requires a boosted modulation fraction

Standard DM models are inconsistent with combined data

Abstract

The CoGeNT collaboration has reported evidence of an annual modulation in its first fifteen months of data. Here we compare the amplitude and phase of this signal to the modulation observed by the DAMA collaboration, assuming that both arise due to elastically scattering dark matter (DM). We directly map the CoGeNT signal to the DAMA detector without specifying any astrophysical parameters and compare this with the signal measured by DAMA. We also compare with constraints from CDMS II and XENON10. We find that DM of mass 5-14 GeV that couples equally to protons and neutrons is strongly disfavoured. Isospin-violating DM fares better but requires a boosted modulation fraction.