Constraints on dark matter-nucleon effective couplings in the presence of kinematically distinct halo substructures using the DEAP-3600 detector

TL;DR

This paper reinterprets dark matter detection limits from DEAP-3600 within an effective field theory framework, analyzing how local halo substructures influence constraints on dark matter-nucleon interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of how local dark matter halo substructures affect effective coupling constraints using data from the DEAP-3600 detector.

Findings

Halo substructures significantly impact constraints on certain effective operators.

Operators $ ext{O}_5$ and $ ext{O}_8$ are highly sensitive to velocity distribution variations.

The study provides bounds for multiple interaction operators considering various halo scenarios.

Abstract

DEAP-3600 is a single-phase liquid argon detector aiming to directly detect Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), located at SNOLAB (Sudbury, Canada). After analyzing data taken during the first year of operation, a null result was used to place an upper bound on the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent, isoscalar cross section. This study reinterprets this result within a Non-Relativistic Effective Field Theory framework, and further examines how various possible substructures in the local dark matter halo may affect these constraints. Such substructures are hinted at by kinematic structures in the local stellar distribution observed by the Gaia satellite and other recent astronomical surveys. These include the Gaia Sausage (or Enceladus), as well as a number of distinct streams identified in recent studies. Limits are presented for the coupling strength of the effective contact interaction operators $\mathcal{O}_1$, $\mathcal{O}_3$, $\mathcal{O}_5$, $\mathcal{O}_8$, and $\mathcal{O}_{11}$, considering isoscalar, isovector, and xenonphobic scenarios, as well as the specific operators corresponding to millicharge, magnetic dipole, electric dipole, and anapole interactions. The effects of halo substructures on each of these operators are explored as well, showing that the $\mathcal{O}_5$ and $\mathcal{O}_8$ operators are particularly sensitive to the velocity distribution, even at dark matter masses above 100 GeV/$c^2$.