Abstract
Neutrino-induced recoil events may constitute a background to direct dark matter searches, particularly for those detectors that strive to reach the ton-scale and beyond. This paper discusses the expected neutrino-induced background spectrum due to several of the most important sources, including solar, atmospheric, and diffuse supernova neutrinos. The largest rate arises from 8B produced solar neutrinos, providing upwards of ∼103 events per ton-year over all recoil energies for the heaviest nuclear targets. However the majority of these 8B events are expected to be below the recoil threshold of modern detectors. The remaining neutrino sources are found to constitute a background to the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP)-induced recoil rate only if the WIMP-nucleon cross section is less than 10−12 pb. Finally the sensitivity to the diffuse supernova neutrino flux for non-electron neutrino flavors is discussed, and projected flux limits are compared with existing flux limits.
Highlights
Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are a leading candidate for the dark matter that constitutes ∼ 23% of the mass density of the Universe [1]
A promising means to search for WIMPs is through direct interactions in underground detectors, whereby the struck nucleus recoils coherently and its kinetic energy is deposited into scintillation light
Due to the nature of the detected events, background subtraction requires understanding the rate and spectral shape of any signal that leads to a coherent nuclear recoil event in the energy window where a dark matter signal appears
Summary
Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are a leading candidate for the dark matter that constitutes ∼ 23% of the mass density of the Universe [1]. Due to the nature of the detected events, background subtraction requires understanding the rate and spectral shape of any signal that leads to a coherent nuclear recoil event in the energy window where a dark matter signal appears. In his seminal work over thirty years ago, Freedman [6] pointed out that the neutrino-nucleon neutral current interaction leads to a coherence effect, whereby the neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering cross section is enhanced and scales approximately as the square of the number of neutrons in the nucleus. It is shown that, with current exposures, detectors should have sensitivity to reduce the current upper limit on the νμ and ντ component of DSNB flux by more than an order of magnitude
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