A vacancy-counting calorimetric readout in paleo-detectors provides an event-by-event proxy for nuclear recoil species, suppressing neutron backgrounds and achieving spin-independent dark matter sensitivities of order 10^{-48} cm² at WIMP masses of tens of GeV.
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New Definition of the Neutrino Floor for Direct Dark Matter Searches
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abstract
The neutrino floor is a theoretical lower limit on WIMP-like dark matter models that are discoverable in direct detection experiments. It is commonly interpreted as the point at which dark matter signals become hidden underneath a remarkably similar-looking background from neutrinos. However, it has been known for some time that the neutrino floor is not a hard limit, but can be pushed past with sufficient statistics. As a consequence, some have recently advocated for calling it the "neutrino fog" instead. The downside of current methods of deriving the neutrino floor are that they rely on arbitrary choices of experimental exposure and energy threshold. Here we propose to define the neutrino floor as the boundary of the neutrino fog, and develop a calculation free from these assumptions. The technique is based on the derivative of a hypothetical experimental discovery limit as a function of exposure, and leads to a neutrino floor that is only influenced by the systematic uncertainties on the neutrino flux normalisations. Our floor is broadly similar to those found in the literature, but differs by almost an order of magnitude in the sub-GeV range, and above 20~GeV.
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representative citing papers
A non-zero topological angle in a confining dark sector induces CP-violating pion-baryon couplings that naturally generate velocity-dependent dark matter self-interactions and dark electric dipole moments for direct detection.
Dark pions stabilized by U(1) flavor symmetry in an SU(3)/SO(3) dark sector obtain the correct thermal relic density through up-scatterings to heavier mesons and dark eta decays, producing LHC signals from long-lived particle showers.
Auriga simulations show the LMC induces azimuthal anisotropies in directional DM recoils that enhance discovery prospects relative to the Standard Halo Model.
XENONnT measures solar 8B neutrino coherent scattering at 3.3 sigma, finds no light dark matter, and constrains the weak mixing angle at low momentum transfer.
Future electroweak precision measurements can probe light higgsinos up to 500 GeV even in compressed spectra below the neutrino fog, complementing direct detection which reaches the 1 TeV thermal relic mass.
Photon-to-graviton conversion in blazar jets dominates a new graviton background that sets a floor for high-frequency GW detectors, analogous to the neutrino floor.
The micrOMEGAs dark-matter package now solves Boltzmann equations with user-defined expansion and entropy histories, adds sub-GeV hadronic annihilation, and updates CMB, dwarf-galaxy, LZ, and CMS constraints.
Bose-Einstein condensate formation in neutron stars enhances dark matter annihilation by 10^15-10^20, allowing freeze-in models to produce observable heating and probe neutrino-fog scattering cross-sections.
Ultrarelativistically decoupling dark matter in Z' portal models has direct detection cross sections that existing experiments like LZ and XENONnT have already excluded over large regions, leaving testable space above the neutrino fog for 0.4 GeV to 1 TeV masses.
Freeze-in at low reheating temperatures allows MeV-scale dark matter in vector portal models to be probed by future direct detection experiments in nuclear recoils for 50-500 MeV masses and via enhanced solar neutrino coherent scattering.
A three-loop radiative neutrino mass model with vectorlike leptons and scalar dark matter that fits oscillation data, dark matter constraints, and lepton flavor violation bounds while predicting testable signals.
An updated Thomas-Imel ionization model for liquid argon, constrained by ReD calibration data, produces new world-leading exclusion limits on 1-3 GeV/c² WIMPs.
A 2HDM extended by two real scalar singlets is scanned with evolutionary strategies to locate regions satisfying vacuum, unitarity, oblique-parameter, collider and dark-matter constraints.
XENONnT extracted nuclear recoil light and charge yields in liquid xenon from 0.3 to 5 keV_NR using 474 events from a ⁸⁸YBe source after subtracting 55 background events.
Simulations of solar CEvNS events produce annually varying ring-like 3D recoil distributions in directional detectors that lack target dependence and contrast with fixed WIMP signals.
Future dark matter detectors with ~3000 ton-yr exposure could probe sterile neutrino mixing with νμ and ντ in parameter space not reached by long-baseline or atmospheric searches.
Global analysis constrains fermionic DM to 120-350 GeV and CP-odd scalar to 350-600 GeV in a scotogenic extension, with DESI potentially ruling out inverted neutrino hierarchy and Z invisible width compatible with data at 3 sigma.
A parameter space analysis of a leptophilic scalar mediator model for Majorana dark matter yields a viable sub-GeV region after applying relic density, cosmological, astrophysical, and laboratory constraints.
citing papers explorer
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Calorimetric approach to paleo-detection of dark matter
A vacancy-counting calorimetric readout in paleo-detectors provides an event-by-event proxy for nuclear recoil species, suppressing neutron backgrounds and achieving spin-independent dark matter sensitivities of order 10^{-48} cm² at WIMP masses of tens of GeV.
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Dark Neutrons as Dark Matter: Collisions in Halos and Direct Detection from Dark CP Violation
A non-zero topological angle in a confining dark sector induces CP-violating pion-baryon couplings that naturally generate velocity-dependent dark matter self-interactions and dark electric dipole moments for direct detection.
-
Dark Matter on a Slide
Dark pions stabilized by U(1) flavor symmetry in an SU(3)/SO(3) dark sector obtain the correct thermal relic density through up-scatterings to heavier mesons and dark eta decays, producing LHC signals from long-lived particle showers.
-
Directional dark matter signatures of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Auriga simulations show the LMC induces azimuthal anisotropies in directional DM recoils that enhance discovery prospects relative to the Standard Halo Model.
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Probing the Solar $^8$B Neutrino Fog with XENONnT
XENONnT measures solar 8B neutrino coherent scattering at 3.3 sigma, finds no light dark matter, and constrains the weak mixing angle at low momentum transfer.
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Complementary Probes of Light Higgsinos: Electroweak Precision Measurements and Dark Matter Direct Detection
Future electroweak precision measurements can probe light higgsinos up to 500 GeV even in compressed spectra below the neutrino fog, complementing direct detection which reaches the 1 TeV thermal relic mass.
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Graviton Floor
Photon-to-graviton conversion in blazar jets dominates a new graviton background that sets a floor for high-frequency GW detectors, analogous to the neutrino floor.
-
micrOMEGAs 7: Beyond standard cosmology
The micrOMEGAs dark-matter package now solves Boltzmann equations with user-defined expansion and entropy histories, adds sub-GeV hadronic annihilation, and updates CMB, dwarf-galaxy, LZ, and CMS constraints.
-
Probing freeze-in dark matter using Bose-Einstein condensate in neutron star
Bose-Einstein condensate formation in neutron stars enhances dark matter annihilation by 10^15-10^20, allowing freeze-in models to produce observable heating and probe neutrino-fog scattering cross-sections.
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Searching for UFOs from the early universe: direct detection prospects for relativistically decoupling dark matter
Ultrarelativistically decoupling dark matter in Z' portal models has direct detection cross sections that existing experiments like LZ and XENONnT have already excluded over large regions, leaving testable space above the neutrino fog for 0.4 GeV to 1 TeV masses.
-
New benchmarks for direct detection of freeze-in dark matter in vector portal models
Freeze-in at low reheating temperatures allows MeV-scale dark matter in vector portal models to be probed by future direct detection experiments in nuclear recoils for 50-500 MeV masses and via enhanced solar neutrino coherent scattering.
-
Radiative neutrino mass generation and dark matter through vectorlike leptons
A three-loop radiative neutrino mass model with vectorlike leptons and scalar dark matter that fits oscillation data, dark matter constraints, and lepton flavor violation bounds while predicting testable signals.
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Sensitivity to low-mass WIMPs with an improved liquid argon ionization response model within the DarkSide programme
An updated Thomas-Imel ionization model for liquid argon, constrained by ReD calibration data, produces new world-leading exclusion limits on 1-3 GeV/c² WIMPs.
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Machine Learning in the 2HDM2S model for Dark Matter
A 2HDM extended by two real scalar singlets is scanned with evolutionary strategies to locate regions satisfying vacuum, unitarity, oblique-parameter, collider and dark-matter constraints.
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Low-Energy Nuclear Recoil Calibration of XENONnT with a $^{88}$YBe Photoneutron Source
XENONnT extracted nuclear recoil light and charge yields in liquid xenon from 0.3 to 5 keV_NR using 474 events from a ⁸⁸YBe source after subtracting 55 background events.
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Simulations of 3-Dimensional Recoil Response to Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering Events in Directional Direct Dark Matter Detectors
Simulations of solar CEvNS events produce annually varying ring-like 3D recoil distributions in directional detectors that lack target dependence and contrast with fixed WIMP signals.
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Sterile Neutrino Mixing Parameters from Solar-Neutrino Coherent Scattering
Future dark matter detectors with ~3000 ton-yr exposure could probe sterile neutrino mixing with νμ and ντ in parameter space not reached by long-baseline or atmospheric searches.
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Global analysis of a minimally extended scotogenic model
Global analysis constrains fermionic DM to 120-350 GeV and CP-odd scalar to 350-600 GeV in a scotogenic extension, with DESI potentially ruling out inverted neutrino hierarchy and Z invisible width compatible with data at 3 sigma.
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Constraints on a Light Leptophilic Scalar from Dark-Sector Couplings
A parameter space analysis of a leptophilic scalar mediator model for Majorana dark matter yields a viable sub-GeV region after applying relic density, cosmological, astrophysical, and laboratory constraints.