Global limits and interference patterns in dark matter direct detection

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how different dark matter-nucleon interaction operators and their interference effects influence direct detection experiment constraints, revealing that neglecting interference can significantly weaken exclusion limits.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive global analysis of dark matter-nucleon interactions, including interference effects, and derives new constraints on 28 coupling constants.

Findings

Interference effects can weaken exclusion limits by up to an order of magnitude.

Current data constrain a wide range of interaction operators, including previously neglected ones.

Destructive interference patterns are significant in interpreting direct detection results.

Abstract

We compare the general effective theory of one-body dark matter nucleon interactions to current direct detection experiments in a global multidimensional statistical analysis. We derive exclusion limits on the 28 isoscalar and isovector coupling constants of the theory, and show that current data place interesting constraints on dark matter-nucleon interaction operators usually neglected in this context. We characterize the interference patterns that can arise in dark matter direct detection from pairs of dark matter-nucleon interaction operators, or from isoscalar and isovector components of the same operator. We find that commonly neglected destructive interference effects weaken standard direct detection exclusion limits by up to one order of magnitude in the coupling constants.