Jong-Hyun Yoon

Generalized spin-dependent WIMP-nucleus interactions and the DAMA modulation effect

Guided by non-relativistic Effective Field Theory (EFT) we classify the most general spin-dependent interactions between a fermionic Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) and nuclei, and within this class of models we discuss the viability of an interpretation of the DAMA modulation result in terms of a signal from WIMP elastic scatterings using a halo-independent approach. We find that, although several relativistic EFTs can lead to a spin-dependent cross section, in some cases with an explicit, non-negligible dependence on the WIMP incoming velocity, three main scenarios can be singled out in the non-relativistic limit which approximately encompass them all, and that only differ by their dependence on the transferred momentum. For two of them compatibility between DAMA and other constraints is possible for a WIMP mass below 30 GeV, but only for a WIMP velocity distribution in the halo of our Galaxy which departs from a Maxwellian. This is achieved by combining a suppression of the WIMP effective coupling to neutrons (to evade constraints from xenon and germanium detectors) to an explicit quadratic or quartic dependence of the cross section on the transferred momentum (that leads to a relative enhancement of the expected rate off sodium in DAMA compared to that off fluorine in droplet detectors and bubble chambers). For larger WIMP masses the same scenarios are excluded by scatterings off iodine in COUPP.

Effective scalar four-fermion interaction for Ge-phobic exothermic dark matter and the CDMS-II Silicon excess

We discuss within the framework of effective four-fermion scalar interaction the phenomenology of a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) Dirac Dark Matter candidate which is exothermic (i.e. is metastable and interacts with nuclear targets down-scattering to a lower-mass state) and

DAMA/LIBRA-phase2 in WIMP effective models

Ge

New approaches in the analysis of dark matter direct detection data: Scratching below the surface of the most general WIMP parameter space

-phobic (i.e. whose couplings to quarks violate isospin symmetry leading to a suppression of its cross section off Germanium targets). We discuss the specific example of the CDMS-II Silicon three-candidate effect showing that a region of the parameter space of the model exists where WIMP scatterings can explain the excess in compliance with other experimental constraints, while at the same time the Dark Matter particle can have a thermal relic density compatible with observation. In this scenario the metastable state

Explaining DAMA with proton-philic spin-dependent inelastic Dark Matter (pSIDM): a frequentist analysis

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Anapole Dark Matter after DAMA/LIBRA-phase2.

and the lowest-mass one

Present direct detection sensitivities to WIMP-quark and WIMP-gluon effective interactions

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Proton-philic spin-dependent inelastic Dark Matter (pSIDM) as a viable explanation of DAMA/LIBRA-phase2

have approximately the same density in the present Universe and in our Galaxy, but direct detection experiments are only sensitive to the down-scatters of

Effective models of WIMP Direct Detection in DAMA/LIBRA-phase2.

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Non-standard scaling laws of WIMP-nucleus interactions in WIMP direct detection.

to