Direct Detection of Dark Matter particles with Long Range Interaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates how long-range interactions mediated by a light particle can reconcile conflicting results from various dark matter direct detection experiments, especially for light dark matter around 10 GeV.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that long-range dark matter interactions via a light mediator can unify experimental results, providing new viable parameter space.

Findings

Long-range interactions can explain discrepancies between experiments.

Mediator masses in the 10-30 MeV range are favored.

Bounds on mediator mass and cross section are established.

Abstract

We study the effect of a long-range DM-nuclei interaction occurring via the exchange of a light mediator. We consider the main direct detection experiments: DAMA, CoGeNT, CRESST, CDMS and XENON100. We find that a long-range force is a viable mechanism, which can provide full agreement between the various experiments, especially for masses of the mediator in the 10-30 MeV range and a light DM with a mass around 10 GeV. The relevant bounds on the light mediator mass and scattering cross section are then derived.