Nuclear proton and neutron distributions in the detection of weak interacting massive particles

TL;DR

This paper investigates how using separate proton and neutron distributions from Hartree-Fock calculations affects WIMP detection rate predictions, especially for isospin-dependent interactions and varying energy thresholds.

Contribution

It introduces the use of distinct proton and neutron distributions in WIMP detection calculations, highlighting their importance for isospin-dependent interactions.

Findings

Different distributions impact detection rates for nuclei with varying neutron excess.

The importance of separate proton and neutron densities decreases at lower detection energy thresholds.

Using Hartree-Fock derived distributions provides more accurate modeling of WIMP-nucleus interactions.

Abstract

In the evaluation of weak interacting massive particles (WIMPs) detection rates, the WIMP-nucleus cross section is commonly described by using form factors extracted from charge distributions. In this work, we use different proton and neutron distributions taken from Hartree-Fock calculations. We study the effects of this choice on the total detection rates for six nuclei with different neutron excess, and taken from different regions of the nuclear chart. The use of different distributions for protons and neutrons becomes more important if isospin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions are considered. The need of distinct descriptions of proton and neutron densities reduces with the lowering of the detection energy thresholds.