Assessing the discovery potential of directional detection of Dark Matter

Details Assessing the discovery potential of directional detection of Dark Matter Assessing the discovery potential of directional detection of Dark Matter

2011-10-27

arxiv.org/abs/1110.6079v2

Phys. Rev. D 85 (2012) 035006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

14 pages, 15 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.85.035006

There is a worldwide effort toward the development of a large TPC (Time Projection Chamber) devoted to directional Dark Matter detection. All current projects are being designed to fulfill a unique goal : identifying weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) as such by taking advantage of the expected direction dependence of WIMP-induced events toward the constellation Cygnus. However such proof of discovery requires a careful statistical data treatment. In this paper, the discovery potential of forthcoming directional detectors is adressed by using a frequentist approach based on the profile likelihood ratio test statistic. This allows us to estimate the expected significance of a Dark Matter detection. Moreover, using this powerful test statistic, it is possible to propagate astrophysical and experimental uncertainties in the determination of the discovery potential of a given directional detection experiment. This way, we found that a 30 kg.year CF$_4$ directional experiment could reach a 3$\sigma$ sensitivity at 90% C.L. down to $10^{-5}$ pb and $3.10^{-4}$ pb for the WIMP-proton axial cross section in the most optimistic and pessimistic scenario respectively.

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