Abstract
Large panels of etched plastic, situated aboard the Skylab Space Station and inside the Ohya quarry near Tokyo, have been used to set limits on fluxes of cosmogenic particles. These plastic particle track detectors also provide the best sensitivity for some heavy dark matter that interacts strongly with nuclei. We revisit prior dark matter bounds from Skylab, and incorporate geometry-dependent thresholds, a halo velocity distribution, and a complete accounting of observed through-going particle fluxes. These considerations reduce the Skylab bound's mass range by a few orders of magnitude. However, a new analysis of Ohya data covers a portion of the prior Skylab bound, and excludes dark matter masses up to the Planck mass. Prospects for future etched plastic dark matter searches are discussed.
Highlights
Dark matter (DM) is critical to the formation of the early universe and the structure of galaxies, and determining dark matter’s mass and couplings to visible matter is a high priority of modern science
While many searches for dark matter focus on finding a weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), with a mass adjacent by a few orders of magnitude to Standard Model particles, it has been known for decades that heavier and more strongly interacting dark matter could make up the cold material that forms the bulk of matter in our universe
In this paper we will consider the detection of strongly interacting massive particle dark matter (SIMPs) using prior data collected by plastic etch detectors searching for cosmogenic particles
Summary
Dark matter (DM) is critical to the formation of the early universe and the structure of galaxies, and determining dark matter’s mass and couplings to visible matter is a high priority of modern science. In this paper we will consider the detection of strongly interacting massive particle dark matter (SIMPs) using prior data collected by plastic etch detectors searching for cosmogenic particles. If the SIMP cross section is large enough, its underground interactions will not overcome the energy threshold of underground dark matter searches. In this work we will study bounds on dark matter interactions with nuclei, obtained from prior searches for cosmogenic particles in etched plastic track detectors. Our purpose in this note will be to provide a detailed bound on dark matter’s interactions using plastic track detectors, by incorporating a realistic dark matter flux, the geometry and composition of the detector and overburden, and an accurate energy threshold in the case of [34]. Appendix provides a review of plastic track detectors and thresholds
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