Saturated Overburden Scattering and the Multiscatter Frontier: Discovering Dark Matter at the Planck Mass and Beyond

TL;DR

This paper proposes that underground dark matter detectors can discover or constrain dark matter with masses up to the Planck scale by considering multiple scattering events and a new overburden scattering effect, greatly expanding current sensitivity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis framework for detecting ultra-heavy dark matter via multiple scattering and a new overburden effect that enhances sensitivity to large cross-sections.

Findings

Detection potential extends to Planck mass dark matter.

Overburden scattering limits are surpassed, increasing sensitivity.

Existing data can be re-analyzed for new discovery prospects.

Abstract

We show that underground experiments like LUX/LZ, PandaX-II, XENON, and PICO could discover dark matter up to the Planck mass and beyond, with new searches for dark matter that scatters multiple times in these detectors. This opens up significant discovery potential via re-analysis of existing and future data. We also identify a new effect which substantially enhances experimental sensitivity to large dark matter scattering cross-sections: while passing through atmospheric or solid overburden, there is a maximum number of scatters that dark matter undergoes, determined by the total number of scattering sites it passes, such as nuclei and electrons. This extends the reach of some published limits and future analyses to arbitrarily large dark matter scattering cross-sections.