Sensitivity plots for WIMP direct detection using the annual modulation signature

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of annual modulation detection in WIMP direct detection experiments, presenting sensitivity plots across different materials and conditions, highlighting optimal WIMP mass ranges and comparison with current limits.

Contribution

It introduces annual-modulation sensitivity plots for WIMP detection, analyzing their effectiveness across various materials and experimental setups.

Findings

Highest sensitivity in WIMP mass range 10-130 GeV

Sensitivity close to current direct detection limits

Modulation detection prospects depend on astrophysical parameters

Abstract

Annual modulation due to the Earth's motion around the Sun is a well known signature of the expected WIMP signal induced in a solid state underground detector. In the present letter we discuss the prospects of this technique on statistical grounds, introducing annual-modulation sensitivity plots for the WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for different materials and experimental conditions. The highest sensitivity to modulation is found in the WIMP mass interval 10 GeV< m_W < 130 GeV, the actual upper limit depending from the choice of the astrophysical parameters, while the lowest values of the explorable WIMP-nucleon elastic cross-sections fall in most cases within one order of magnitude of the sensitivities of present direct detection WIMP searches.