A Possibility of Determining the WIMP Mass by Using the Angular Recoil-Energy Spectra from Directional Direct Dark Matter Detection Experiments

TL;DR

This paper explores how directional dark matter detection experiments can potentially determine the mass of WIMPs by analyzing the angular recoil-energy spectra, revealing distinct structural patterns for different WIMP masses.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate WIMP mass using the angular recoil-energy spectra and ridge-crater structures observed in directional detection experiments.

Findings

Light WIMPs (~tens of GeV) produce ridge-like angular structures.

Heavy WIMPs (~hundreds of GeV) produce crater-like angular structures.

Distinct structures correlate with WIMP mass, aiding mass determination.

Abstract

In this article, as an extension of our study on the angular distribution of the recoil flux of WIMP-scattered target nuclei, we demonstrate a possibility of determining the mass of incident halo WIMPs by using or combining "ridge-crater" structures of the angular recoil-energy spectra with different target nuclei observed in directional direct Dark Matter detection experiments. Our simulation results show that, for a WIMP mass of only a few tens GeV, the stereoscopic angular recoil-flux distributions of both of light and heavy target nuclei would have a (longitudinally) "ridge-like" structure. However, once the WIMP mass is as heavy as a few hundreds GeV, the angular recoil-flux distributions of heavy target nuclei would in contrast show a (latitudinally) "crater-like" structure.