Speaker
Description
Scatterings both on electrons and nuclei of the Earth crust, atmosphere, and shielding attenuate the expected local dark matter flux at a terrestrial detector. Such experiments lose sensitivity to dark matter above some critical cross section, and do not probe potentially stronger interactions. In this talk, I consider a simple model of the dark sector with a dark photon in the two limits of heavy and ultralight mediators. In this model, the dark matter-electron scattering cross-section is directly linked to the dark matter-nucleus cross section, and nuclear interactions typically dominate the attenuation process. I will present the exclusion bands for various experiments computed using Monte Carlo simulations, and also the constraint’s behaviour for various scenarios. Apart from the dark photon model, I also consider the case where the dark matter couples exclusively to electrons, and show the corresponding constraints computed via analytic methods. Finally, I will discuss the prospects and modulation signature of small scale, balloon and satellite borne direct detection experiments.
