What is needed to accept the new explanation of DAMA results

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility that OH-contamination in DAMA's NaI(Tl) crystals could be responsible for the observed modulation, proposing a new detection mechanism and calibration method for low-mass WIMPs.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that OH-molecules may serve as sensitive detectors for neutrons or WIMPs and proposes a new detector concept for low-mass WIMP detection.

Findings

OH-molecules could act as sensitive detection sites for WIMPs.

A calibration procedure is suggested to test the OH-molecule detection hypothesis.

A new detector concept for low-mass WIMPs is proposed.

Abstract

The DAMA experiment clearly observes a small oscillatory signal. The observed yearly modulation is in phase with the Earth's motion around the Sun. Recent reference [Vavra, 2014] suggested that the DAMA experiment observes a WIMP of much smaller mass than what Xenon 10, Xenon 100, LUX and CDMS experiments can possibly reach. Scattering would occur on proton or oxygen target present in the NaI(Tl) crystal as OH-contamination at a few ppm level. This paper elaborates further on the idea that the OH-molecule could act as a very sensitive detection mechanism for neutrons or WIMPs, and suggests a calibration procedure to prove this idea. We also propose a new detector concept to detect a low mass WIMP.