Weakly interacting massive particle

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Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are hypothetical particles that are one of the proposed candidates for dark matter.

Contents

There exists no formal definition of a WIMP, but broadly, it is an elementary particle which interacts via gravity and any other force (or forces) which is as weak as or weaker than the weak nuclear force, but also non-vanishing in strength. Many WIMP candidates are expected to have been produced thermally in the early Universe, similarly to the particles of the Standard Model [1] according to Big Bang cosmology, and usually will constitute cold dark matter. Obtaining the correct abundance of dark matter today via thermal production requires a self-annihilation cross section of , which is roughly what is expected for a new particle in the 100  GeV mass range that interacts via the electroweak force.

Experimental efforts to detect WIMPs include the search for products of WIMP annihilation, including gamma rays, neutrinos and cosmic rays in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters; direct detection experiments designed to measure the collision of WIMPs with nuclei in the laboratory, as well as attempts to directly produce WIMPs in colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

Because supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics readily predict a new particle with these properties, this apparent coincidence is known as the "WIMP miracle", and a stable supersymmetric partner has long been a prime WIMP candidate. [2] However, in the early 2010s, results from direct-detection experiments along with the lack of evidence for supersymmetry at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment [3] [4] has cast doubt on the simplest WIMP hypothesis. [5]

Theoretical framework and properties

WIMP-like particles are predicted by R-parity-conserving supersymmetry, a type of extension to the Standard Model of particle physics, although none of the large number of new particles in supersymmetry have been observed. [6] WIMP-like particles are also predicted by universal extra dimension and little Higgs theories.

Modelparitycandidate
SUSY R-parity lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP)
UED KK-paritylightest Kaluza–Klein particle (LKP)
little Higgs T-parity lightest T-odd particle (LTP)

The main theoretical characteristics of a WIMP are:

Because of their lack of electromagnetic interaction with normal matter, WIMPs would be invisible through normal electromagnetic observations. Because of their large mass, they would be relatively slow moving and therefore "cold". [8] Their relatively low velocities would be insufficient to overcome the mutual gravitational attraction, and as a result, WIMPs would tend to clump together. [9] WIMPs are considered one of the main candidates for cold dark matter, the others being massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) and axions. These names were deliberately chosen for contrast, with MACHOs named later than WIMPs. [10] In contrast to WIMPs, there are no known stable particles within the Standard Model of particle physics that have the properties of MACHOs. The particles that have little interaction with normal matter, such as neutrinos, are very light, and hence would be fast moving, or "hot".

As dark matter

A decade after the dark matter problem was established in the 1970s, WIMPs were suggested as a potential solution to the issue. [11] Although the existence of WIMPs in nature is still hypothetical, it would resolve a number of astrophysical and cosmological problems related to dark matter. There is consensus today among astronomers that most of the mass in the Universe is indeed dark. Simulations of a universe full of cold dark matter produce galaxy distributions that are roughly similar to what is observed. [12] [13] By contrast, hot dark matter would smear out the large-scale structure of galaxies and thus is not considered a viable cosmological model.

WIMPs fit the model of a relic dark matter particle from the early Universe, when all particles were in a state of thermal equilibrium. For sufficiently high temperatures, such as those existing in the early Universe, the dark matter particle and its antiparticle would have been both forming from and annihilating into lighter particles. As the Universe expanded and cooled, the average thermal energy of these lighter particles decreased and eventually became insufficient to form a dark matter particle-antiparticle pair. The annihilation of the dark matter particle-antiparticle pairs, however, would have continued, and the number density of dark matter particles would have begun to decrease exponentially. [7] Eventually, however, the number density would become so low that the dark matter particle and antiparticle interaction would cease, and the number of dark matter particles would remain (roughly) constant as the Universe continued to expand. [9] Particles with a larger interaction cross section would continue to annihilate for a longer period of time, and thus would have a smaller number density when the annihilation interaction ceases. Based on the current estimated abundance of dark matter in the Universe, if the dark matter particle is such a relic particle, the interaction cross section governing the particle-antiparticle annihilation can be no larger than the cross section for the weak interaction. [7] If this model is correct, the dark matter particle would have the properties of the WIMP.

Indirect detection

Because WIMPs may only interact through gravitational and weak forces, they would be extremely difficult to detect. However, there are many experiments underway to attempt to detect WIMPs both directly and indirectly. Indirect detection refers to the observation of annihilation or decay products of WIMPs far away from Earth. Indirect detection efforts typically focus on locations where WIMP dark matter is thought to accumulate the most: in the centers of galaxies and galaxy clusters, as well as in the smaller satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. These are particularly useful since they tend to contain very little baryonic matter, reducing the expected background from standard astrophysical processes. Typical indirect searches look for excess gamma rays, which are predicted both as final-state products of annihilation, or are produced as charged particles interact with ambient radiation via inverse Compton scattering. The spectrum and intensity of a gamma ray signal depends on the annihilation products, and must be computed on a model-by-model basis. Experiments that have placed bounds on WIMP annihilation, via the non-observation of an annihilation signal, include the Fermi-LAT gamma ray telescope [14] and the VERITAS ground-based gamma ray observatory. [15] Although the annihilation of WIMPs into Standard Model particles also predicts the production of high-energy neutrinos, their interaction rate is thought to be too low to reliably detect a dark matter signal at present. Future observations from the IceCube observatory in Antarctica may be able to differentiate WIMP-produced neutrinos from standard astrophysical neutrinos; however, by 2014, only 37 cosmological neutrinos had been observed, [16] making such a distinction impossible.

Another type of indirect WIMP signal could come from the Sun. Halo WIMPs may, as they pass through the Sun, interact with solar protons, helium nuclei as well as heavier elements. If a WIMP loses enough energy in such an interaction to fall below the local escape velocity, it would theoretically not have enough energy to escape the gravitational pull of the Sun and would remain gravitationally bound. [9] As more and more WIMPs thermalize inside the Sun, they would begin to annihilate with each other, theoretically forming a variety of particles, including high-energy neutrinos. [17] These neutrinos may then travel to the Earth to be detected in one of the many neutrino telescopes, such as the Super-Kamiokande detector in Japan. The number of neutrino events detected per day at these detectors depends on the properties of the WIMP, as well as on the mass of the Higgs boson. Similar experiments are underway to attempt to detect neutrinos from WIMP annihilations within the Earth [18] and from within the galactic center. [19] [20]

Direct detection

Direct detection refers to the observation of the effects of a WIMP-nucleus collision as the dark matter passes through a detector in an Earth laboratory. While most WIMP models indicate that a large enough number of WIMPs must be captured in large celestial bodies for indirect detection experiments to succeed, it remains possible that these models are either incorrect or only explain part of the dark matter phenomenon. Thus, even with the multiple experiments dedicated to providing indirect evidence for the existence of cold dark matter, direct detection measurements are also necessary to solidify the theory of WIMPs.

Although most WIMPs encountering the Sun or the Earth are expected to pass through without any effect, it is hoped that a large number of dark matter WIMPs crossing a sufficiently large detector will interact often enough to be seen—at least a few events per year. The general strategy of current attempts to detect WIMPs is to find very sensitive systems that can be scaled to large volumes. This follows the lessons learned from the history of the discovery, and (by now routine) detection, of the neutrino.

Fig 1. CDMS parameter space excluded as of 2004. DAMA result is located in green area and is disallowed. CDMS parameter space 2004.png
Fig 1. CDMS parameter space excluded as of 2004. DAMA result is located in green area and is disallowed.

Experimental techniques

Cryogenic crystal detectors – A technique used by the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) detector at the Soudan Mine relies on multiple very cold germanium and silicon crystals. The crystals (each about the size of a hockey puck) are cooled to about 50 mK. A layer of metal (aluminium and tungsten) at the surfaces is used to detect a WIMP passing through the crystal. This design hopes to detect vibrations in the crystal matrix generated by an atom being "kicked" by a WIMP. The tungsten transition edge sensors (TES) are held at the critical temperature so they are in the superconducting state. Large crystal vibrations will generate heat in the metal and are detectable because of a change in resistance. CRESST, CoGeNT, and EDELWEISS run similar setups.

Noble gas scintillators – Another way of detecting atoms "knocked about" by a WIMP is to use scintillating material, so that light pulses are generated by the moving atom and detected, often with PMTs. Experiments such as DEAP at SNOLAB and DarkSide at the LNGS instrument a very large target mass of liquid argon for sensitive WIMP searches. ZEPLIN, and XENON used xenon to exclude WIMPs at higher sensitivity, with the most stringent limits to date provided by the XENON1T detector, utilizing 3.5 tons of liquid xenon. [21] Even larger multi-ton liquid xenon detectors have been approved for construction from the XENON, LUX-ZEPLIN and PandaX collaborations.

Crystal scintillators – Instead of a liquid noble gas, an in principle simpler approach is the use of a scintillating crystal such as NaI(Tl). This approach is taken by DAMA/LIBRA, an experiment that observed an annular modulation of the signal consistent with WIMP detection (see § Recent limits ). Several experiments are attempting to replicate those results, including ANAIS, COSINUS and DM-Ice, which is codeploying NaI crystals with the IceCube detector at the South Pole. KIMS is approaching the same problem using CsI(Tl) as a scintillator.

Bubble chambers – The PICASSO (Project In Canada to Search for Supersymmetric Objects) experiment is a direct dark matter search experiment that is located at SNOLAB in Canada. It uses bubble detectors with Freon as the active mass. PICASSO is predominantly sensitive to spin-dependent interactions of WIMPs with the fluorine atoms in the Freon. COUPP, a similar experiment using trifluoroiodomethane(CF3I), published limits for mass above 20 GeV in 2011. [22] The two experiments merged into PICO collaboration in 2012.

A bubble detector is a radiation sensitive device that uses small droplets of superheated liquid that are suspended in a gel matrix. [23] It uses the principle of a bubble chamber but, since only the small droplets can undergo a phase transition at a time, the detector can stay active for much longer periods.[ clarification needed ] When enough energy is deposited in a droplet by ionizing radiation, the superheated droplet becomes a gas bubble. The bubble development is accompanied by an acoustic shock wave that is picked up by piezo-electric sensors. The main advantage of the bubble detector technique is that the detector is almost insensitive to background radiation. The detector sensitivity can be adjusted by changing the temperature, typically operated between 15 °C and 55 °C. There is another similar experiment using this technique in Europe called SIMPLE.

PICASSO reports results (November 2009) for spin-dependent WIMP interactions on 19F, for masses of 24 Gev new stringent limits have been obtained on the spin-dependent cross section of 13.9 pb (90% CL). The obtained limits restrict recent interpretations of the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation effect in terms of spin dependent interactions. [24]

PICO is an expansion of the concept planned in 2015. [25]

Other types of detectors – Time projection chambers (TPCs) filled with low pressure gases are being studied for WIMP detection. The Directional Recoil Identification From Tracks (DRIFT) collaboration is attempting to utilize the predicted directionality of the WIMP signal. DRIFT uses a carbon disulfide target, that allows WIMP recoils to travel several millimetres, leaving a track of charged particles. This charged track is drifted to an MWPC readout plane that allows it to be reconstructed in three dimensions and determine the origin direction. DMTPC is a similar experiment with CF4 gas.

The DAMIC (DArk Matter In CCDs) and SENSEI (Sub Electron Noise Skipper CCD Experimental Instrument) collaborations employ the use of scientific Charge Coupled Devices (CCDs) to detect light Dark Matter. The CCDs act as both the detector target and the readout instrumentation. WIMP interactions with the bulk of the CCD can induce the creation of electron-hole pairs, which are then collected and readout by the CCDs. In order to decrease the noise and achieve detection of single electrons, the experiments make use of a type of CCD known as the Skipper CCD, which allows for averaging over repeated measurements of the same collected charge. [26] [27]

Recent limits

Figure 2: Plot showing the parameter space of dark matter particle mass and interaction cross section with nucleons. The LUX and SuperCDMS limits exclude the parameter space above the labelled curves. The CoGeNT and CRESST-II regions indicate regions which were previously thought to correspond to dark matter signals, but which were later explained with mundane sources. The DAMA and CDMS-Si data remain unexplained, and these regions indicate the preferred parameter space if these anomalies are due to dark matter. Direct Detection Constraints.png
Figure 2: Plot showing the parameter space of dark matter particle mass and interaction cross section with nucleons. The LUX and SuperCDMS limits exclude the parameter space above the labelled curves. The CoGeNT and CRESST-II regions indicate regions which were previously thought to correspond to dark matter signals, but which were later explained with mundane sources. The DAMA and CDMS-Si data remain unexplained, and these regions indicate the preferred parameter space if these anomalies are due to dark matter.

There are currently no confirmed detections of dark matter from direct detection experiments, with the strongest exclusion limits coming from the LUX and SuperCDMS experiments, as shown in figure 2. With 370 kilograms of xenon LUX is more sensitive than XENON or CDMS. [28] First results from October 2013 report that no signals were seen, appearing to refute results obtained from less sensitive instruments. [29] and this was confirmed after the final data run ended in May 2016. [30]

Historically there have been four anomalous sets of data from different direct detection experiments, two of which have now been explained with backgrounds (CoGeNT and CRESST-II), and two which remain unexplained (DAMA/LIBRA and CDMS-Si). [31] [32] In February 2010, researchers at CDMS announced that they had observed two events that may have been caused by WIMP-nucleus collisions. [33] [34] [35]

CoGeNT, a smaller detector using a single germanium puck, designed to sense WIMPs with smaller masses, reported hundreds of detection events in 56 days. [36] [37] They observed an annual modulation in the event rate that could indicate light dark matter. [38] However a dark matter origin for the CoGeNT events has been refuted by more recent analyses, in favour of an explanation in terms of a background from surface events. [39]

Annual modulation is one of the predicted signatures of a WIMP signal, [40] [41] and on this basis the DAMA collaboration has claimed a positive detection. Other groups, however, have not confirmed this result. The CDMS data made public in May 2004 exclude the entire DAMA signal region given certain standard assumptions about the properties of the WIMPs and the dark matter halo, and this has been followed by many other experiments (see Figure 2).

The COSINE-100 collaboration (a merging of KIMS and DM-Ice groups) published their results on replicating the DAMA/LIBRA signal in December 2018 in journal Nature; their conclusion was that "this result rules out WIMP–nucleon interactions as the cause of the annual modulation observed by the DAMA collaboration". [42] In 2021 new results from COSINE-100 and ANAIS-112 both failed to replicate the DAMA/LIBRA signal [43] [44] [45] and in August 2022 COSINE-100 applied an analysis method similar to one used by DAMA/LIBRA and found a similar annual modulation suggesting the signal could be just a statistical artifact [46] [47] supporting a hypothesis first put forward in 2020. [48]

The future of direct detection

Upper limits for WIMP-nucleon elastic cross sections from selected experiments as reported by the LZ experiment in July 2023. WIMPsLZexperiment2023.png
Upper limits for WIMP-nucleon elastic cross sections from selected experiments as reported by the LZ experiment in July 2023.

The 2020s should see the emergence of several multi-tonne mass direct detection experiments, which will probe WIMP-nucleus cross sections orders of magnitude smaller than the current state-of-the-art sensitivity. Examples of such next-generation experiments are LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) and XENONnT, which are multi-tonne liquid xenon experiments, followed by DARWIN, another proposed liquid xenon direct detection experiment of 50–100 tonnes. [49] [50]

Such multi-tonne experiments will also face a new background in the form of neutrinos, which will limit their ability to probe the WIMP parameter space beyond a certain point, known as the neutrino floor. However, although its name may imply a hard limit, the neutrino floor represents the region of parameter space beyond which experimental sensitivity can only improve at best as the square root of exposure (the product of detector mass and running time). [51] [52] For WIMP masses below 10 GeV the dominant source of neutrino background is from the Sun, while for higher masses the background contains contributions from atmospheric neutrinos and the diffuse supernova neutrino background.

In December 2021, results from PandaX have found no signal in their data, with a lowest excluded cross section of 3.8×10−47  cm2 at 40 GeV with 90% confidence level. [53] [54]

In July 2023 the XENONnT and LZ experiment published the first results of their searches for WIMPs, [55] the first excluding cross sections above 2.58×10−47 cm2 at 28 GeV with 90% confidence level [56] and the second excluding cross sections above 9.2×10−48 cm2 at 36 GeV with 90% confidence level. [57]

See also

Theoretical candidates

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark matter</span> Concept in cosmology

In astronomy, dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravitational effects which cannot be explained by general relativity unless more matter is present than can be observed. Such effects occur in the context of formation and evolution of galaxies, gravitational lensing, the observable universe's current structure, mass position in galactic collisions, the motion of galaxies within galaxy clusters, and cosmic microwave background anisotropies.

In cosmology and physics, cold dark matter (CDM) is a hypothetical type of dark matter. According to the current standard model of cosmology, Lambda-CDM model, approximately 27% of the universe is dark matter and 68% is dark energy, with only a small fraction being the ordinary baryonic matter that composes stars, planets, and living organisms. Cold refers to the fact that the dark matter moves slowly compared to the speed of light, giving it a vanishing equation of state. Dark indicates that it interacts very weakly with ordinary matter and electromagnetic radiation. Proposed candidates for CDM include weakly interacting massive particles, primordial black holes, and axions.

The DAMA/NaI experiment investigated the presence of dark matter particles in the galactic halo by exploiting the model-independent annual modulation signature. Based on the Earth's orbit around the Sun and the solar system's speed with respect to the center of the galaxy, the Earth should be exposed to a higher flux of dark matter particles around June 1, when its orbital speed is added to the one of the solar system with respect to the galaxy and to a smaller one around December 2, when the two velocities are subtracted. The annual modulation signature is distinctive since the effect induced by dark matter particles must simultaneously satisfy many requirements.

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) is a series of experiments designed to directly detect particle dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles. Using an array of semiconductor detectors at millikelvin temperatures, CDMS has at times set the most sensitive limits on the interactions of WIMP dark matter with terrestrial materials. The first experiment, CDMS I, was run in a tunnel under the Stanford University campus. It was followed by CDMS II experiment in the Soudan Mine. The most recent experiment, SuperCDMS, was located deep underground in the Soudan Mine in northern Minnesota and collected data from 2011 through 2015. The series of experiments continues with SuperCDMS SNOLAB, an experiment located at the SNOLAB facility near Sudbury, Ontario, in Canada that started construction in 2018 and is expected to start data taking in early 2020s.

Sterile neutrinos are hypothetical particles that interact only via gravity and not via any of the other fundamental interactions of the Standard Model. The term sterile neutrino is used to distinguish them from the known, ordinary active neutrinos in the Standard Model, which carry an isospin charge of ⁠±+1/ 2 ⁠ and engage in the weak interaction. The term typically refers to neutrinos with right-handed chirality, which may be inserted into the Standard Model. Particles that possess the quantum numbers of sterile neutrinos and masses great enough such that they do not interfere with the current theory of Big Bang nucleosynthesis are often called neutral heavy leptons (NHLs) or heavy neutral leptons (HNLs).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IceCube Neutrino Observatory</span> Neutrino detector at the South Pole

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a neutrino observatory developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison and constructed at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica. The project is a recognized CERN experiment (RE10). Its thousands of sensors are located under the Antarctic ice, distributed over a cubic kilometer.

The XENON dark matter research project, operated at the Italian Gran Sasso National Laboratory, is a deep underground detector facility featuring increasingly ambitious experiments aiming to detect hypothetical dark matter particles. The experiments aim to detect particles in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by looking for rare nuclear recoil interactions in a liquid xenon target chamber. The current detector consists of a dual phase time projection chamber (TPC).

Warm dark matter (WDM) is a hypothesized form of dark matter that has properties intermediate between those of hot dark matter and cold dark matter, causing structure formation to occur bottom-up from above their free-streaming scale, and top-down below their free streaming scale. The most common WDM candidates are sterile neutrinos and gravitinos. The WIMPs, when produced non-thermally, could be candidates for warm dark matter. In general, however, the thermally produced WIMPs are cold dark matter candidates.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEAP</span> Dark matter search experiment

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Large Underground Xenon experiment</span> Dark matter detection experiment

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light dark matter</span> Dark matter weakly interacting massive particles candidates with masses less than 1 GeV

Light dark matter, in astronomy and cosmology, are dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) candidates with masses less than 1 GeV. These particles are heavier than warm dark matter and hot dark matter, but are lighter than the traditional forms of cold dark matter, such as Massive Compact Halo Objects (MACHOs). The Lee-Weinberg bound limits the mass of the favored dark matter candidate, WIMPs, that interact via the weak interaction to GeV. This bound arises as follows. The lower the mass of WIMPs is, the lower the annihilation cross section, which is of the order , where m is the WIMP mass and M the mass of the Z-boson. This means that low mass WIMPs, which would be abundantly produced in the early universe, freeze out much earlier and thus at a higher temperature, than higher mass WIMPs. This leads to a higher relic WIMP density. If the mass is lower than GeV the WIMP relic density would overclose the universe.

The DAMA/LIBRA experiment is a particle detector experiment designed to detect dark matter using the direct detection approach, by using a matrix of NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors to detect dark matter particles in the galactic halo. The experiment aims to find an annual modulation of the number of detection events, caused by the variation of the velocity of the detector relative to the dark matter halo as the Earth orbits the Sun. It is located underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EDELWEISS</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">LZ experiment</span> Experiment in South Dakota, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jocelyn Monroe</span> American experimental particle physicist

Jocelyn Monroe is an American British experimental particle physicist who is a professor at the University of Oxford. Her research considers the development of novel detectors as part of the search for dark matter. In 2016 she was honoured with the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for her work on the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANAIS-112</span> Spanish dark matter direct detection experiment

ANAIS is a dark matter direct detection experiment located at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), in Spain, operated by a team of researchers of the CAPA at the University of Zaragoza.

Direct detection of dark matter is the science of attempting to directly measure dark matter collisions in Earth-based experiments. Modern astrophysical measurements, such as from the Cosmic Microwave Background, strongly indicate that 85% of the matter content of the universe is unaccounted for. Although the existence of dark matter is widely believed, what form it takes or its precise properties has never been determined. There are three main avenues of research to detect dark matter: attempts to make dark matter in accelerators, indirect detection of dark matter annihilation, and direct detection of dark matter in terrestrial labs. The founding principle of direct dark matter detection is that since dark matter is known to exist in the local universe, as the Earth, Solar System, and the Milky Way Galaxy carve out a path through the universe they must intercept dark matter, regardless of what form it takes.

Daniel S. Akerib is an American particle physicist and astrophysicist. He was elected in 2008 a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

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