On the direct search for spin-dependent WIMP interactions

TL;DR

This paper reviews current experimental efforts in detecting spin-dependent dark matter interactions, highlighting a focus on WIMP-neutron coupling and the need to improve WIMP-proton sensitivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of existing experiments, emphasizing the imbalance in sensitivity between WIMP-neutron and WIMP-proton interactions and identifying potential experiments to address this gap.

Findings

Most experiments focus on WIMP-neutron spin coupling.

WIMP-proton spin sensitivity is comparatively underexplored.

Identifies experiments capable of improving WIMP-proton interaction constraints.

Abstract

We examine the current directions in the search for spin-dependent dark matter. We discover that, with few exceptions, the search activity is concentrated towards constraints on the WIMP-neutron spin coupling, with significantly less impact in the WIMP-proton sector. We review the situation of those experiments with WIMP-proton spin sensitivity, toward identifying those capable of reestablishing the balance.