Speaker
Dr
Annika Peter
(University of California, Irvine)
Description
Once weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are unambiguously detected in
direct-detection experiments, the challenge will be to determine what one may infer
from the data. I examine the prospects for reconstructing the local speed
distribution of WIMPs in addition to their particle-physics properties (mass, cross
sections) from next-generation cryogenic and liquid-noble direct-detection
experiments. I show that using a more general, empirical form of the speed
distribution can lead to good constraints on the speed distribution as well as the
WIMP mass and cross sections. Moreover, one can use Bayesian model selection
criteria to determine if a theoretically-inspired functional form for the speed
distribution (such as a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution) fits better than an empirical
model. The shape of the degeneracy between WIMP mass and cross sections and
their offset from the true values of those parameters depends on the hypothesis for
the speed distribution, which has significant implications for consistency checks
between direct-detection and collider data. In addition, I find that the uncertainties
on theoretical parameters depends sensitively on the upper end of the energy range
used for WIMP searches. Better constraints on the WIMP particle-physics parameters
and the speed distribution are obtained if the WIMP search is extended to higher
energy (~1 MeV).
Primary author
Dr
Annika Peter
(University of California, Irvine)
