Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Christopher McCabe, N. Wyn Evans, GyuChul Myeong, Vasily Belokurov
Jul 24, 2018·astro-ph.CO·PDF The recently discovered S1 stream passes through the Solar neighbourhood on a low inclination, counter-rotating orbit. The progenitor of S1 is a dwarf galaxy with a total mass comparable to the present-day Fornax dwarf spheroidal, so the stream is expected to have a significant DM component. We compute the effects of the S1 stream on WIMP and axion detectors as a function of the density of its unmeasured dark component. In WIMP detectors the S1 stream supplies more high energy nuclear recoils so will marginally improve DM detection prospects. We find that even if S1 comprises less than 10% of the local density, multi-ton xenon WIMP detectors can distinguish the S1 stream from the bulk halo in the relatively narrow mass range between 5 and 25 GeV. In directional WIMP detectors such as CYGNUS, S1 increases DM detection prospects more substantially since it enhances the anisotropy of the WIMP signal. Finally, we show that axion haloscopes possess by far the greatest potential sensitivity to the S1 stream. Once the axion mass has been discovered, the distinctive velocity distribution of S1 can easily be extracted from the axion power spectrum.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Anne M. Green
Oct 10, 2014·astro-ph.CO·PDF Directional detection of WIMPs, in which the energies and directions of the recoiling nuclei are measured, currently presents the only prospect for probing the local velocity distribution of Galactic dark matter. We investigate the extent to which future directional detectors would be capable of probing dark matter substructure in the form of streams. We analyse the signal expected from a Sagittarius-like stream and also explore the full parameter space of stream speed, direction, dispersion and density. Using a combination of non-parametric directional statistics, a profile likelihood ratio test and Bayesian parameter inference we find that within acceptable exposure times (O(10) kg yr for cross sections just below the current exclusion limits) future directional detectors will be sensitive to a wide range of stream velocities and densities. We also examine and discuss the importance of the energy window of the detector.
Nicole F. Bell, Chiara Lisotti, Jayden L. Newstead, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Iman Shaukat Ali
Scenarios where dark matter is boosted to relativistic velocities provide a promising probe of sub-GeV dark matter. Cosmic-ray upscattered and supernova-produced dark matter generate relativistic fluxes peaked toward the Galactic Centre, an anisotropy that offers a strong directional signature and is not mimicked by any terrestrial or cosmic background. We determine how many directional recoil events are required in a gas time-projection chamber to distinguish various scenarios for the origin of dark matter particles arriving in the solar system, which are otherwise indistinguishable without directionality. We find that standard halo dark matter particles can be distinguished from boosted populations with as few as $\mathcal{O}(20)$ events under reasonable track reconstruction performance and background conditions.
N. Wyn Evans, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Christopher McCabe
Oct 26, 2018·astro-ph.GA·PDF Predicting signals in experiments to directly detect dark matter (DM) requires a form for the local DM velocity distribution. Hitherto, the standard halo model (SHM), in which velocities are isotropic and follow a truncated Gaussian law, has performed this job. New data, however, suggest that a substantial fraction of our stellar halo lies in a strongly radially anisotropic population, the 'Gaia Sausage'. Inspired by this recent discovery, we introduce an updated DM halo model, the SHM$^{++}$, which includes a `Sausage' component, thus better describing the known features of our galaxy. The SHM$^{++}$ is a simple analytic model with five parameters: the circular speed, local escape speed and local DM density, which we update to be consistent with the latest data, and two new parameters: the anisotropy and the density of DM in the Sausage. The impact of the SHM$^{++}$ on signal models for WIMPs and axions is rather modest since the multiple changes and updates have competing effects. The largest change occurs for directional detectors which have sensitivity to the full three-dimensional velocity distribution.
Theopisti Dafni, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Biljana Lakić, Javier Galán, Francisco J. Iguaz, Igor G. Irastorza, Krešimir Jakovčić, Gloria Luzón, Javier Redondo, Elisa Ruiz Chóliz
Axion helioscopes search for solar axions and axion-like particles via inverse Primakoff conversion in strong laboratory magnets pointed at the Sun. While helioscopes can always measure the axion coupling to photons, the conversion signal is independent of the mass for axions lighter than around 0.02 eV. Masses above this value on the other hand have suppressed signals due to axion-photon oscillations which destroy the coherence of the conversion along the magnet. However, the spectral oscillations present in the axion conversion signal between these two regimes are highly dependent on the axion mass. We show that these oscillations are observable given realistic energy resolutions and can be used to determine the axion mass to within percent level accuracies. Using projections for the upcoming helioscope IAXO, we demonstrate that $>3σ$ sensitivity to a non-zero axion mass is possible between $3 \times 10^{-3}$ and $10^{-1}$ eV for both the Primakoff and axion-electron solar fluxes.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Andrea Caputo, Alexander J. Millar, Edoardo Vitagliano
Jun 18, 2020·astro-ph.CO·PDF Axion helioscopes search for solar axions and axion-like particles via inverse Primakoff conversion in strong laboratory magnets pointed at the Sun. Anticipating the detection of solar axions, we determine the potential for the planned next-generation helioscope, the International Axion Observatory (IAXO), to measure or constrain the solar magnetic field. To do this we consider a previously neglected component of the solar axion flux at sub-keV energies arising from the conversion of longitudinal plasmons. This flux is sensitively dependent to the magnetic field profile of the Sun, with lower energies corresponding to axions converting into photons at larger solar radii. If the detector technology eventually installed in IAXO has an energy resolution better than 200 eV, then solar axions could become an even more powerful messenger than neutrinos of the magnetic field in the core of the Sun. For energy resolutions better than 10 eV, IAXO could access the inner 70% of the Sun and begin to constrain the field at the tachocline: the boundary between the radiative and convective zones. The longitudinal plasmon flux from a toroidal magnetic field also has an additional 2% geometric modulation effect which could be used to measure the angular dependence of the magnetic field.
Celine Boehm, Archil Kobakhidze, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Zachary S. C. Picker, Mairi Sakellariadou
Aug 24, 2020·astro-ph.CO·PDF Primordial black holes (PBHs) in the mass range $(30$--$100)~M_{\odot}$ are interesting candidates for dark matter, as they sit in a narrow window between microlensing and cosmic microwave background constraints. There are however tight constraints from the binary merger rate observed by the LIGO and Virgo experiments. In deriving these constraints, PBHs were treated as point Schwarzschild masses, while the more careful analysis in an expanding universe we present here, leads to a time-dependent mass. This implies a stricter set of conditions for a black hole binary to form and means that black holes coalesce much more quickly than was previously calculated, namely well before the LIGO/Virgo's observed mergers. The observed binaries are those coalescing within galactic halos, with a merger rate consistent with data. This reopens the possibility for dark matter in the form of LIGO-mass PBHs.
Sven E. Vahsen, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Dinesh Loomba
Searches for dark matter-induced recoils have made impressive advances in the last few years. Yet the field is confronted by several outstanding problems. First, the inevitable background of solar neutrinos will soon inhibit the conclusive identification of many dark matter models. Second, and more fundamentally, current experiments have no practical way of confirming a detected signal's galactic origin. The concept of directional detection addresses both of these issues while offering opportunities to study novel dark matter and neutrino-related physics. The concept remains experimentally challenging, but gas time projection chambers are an increasingly attractive option, and when properly configured, would allow directional measurements of both nuclear and electron recoils. In this review, we reassess the required detector performance and survey relevant technologies. Fortuitously, the highly-segmented detectors required to achieve good directionality also enable several fundamental and applied physics measurements. We comment on near-term challenges and how the field could be advanced.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare
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.
Celine Boehm, Archil Kobakhidze, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Zachary S. C. Picker, Mairi Sakellariadou
May 31, 2021·astro-ph.CO·PDF Recently, Hütsi et al.[arXiv:2105.09328] critiqued our work that reconsidered the mathematical description of cosmological black holes. In this short comment, we highlight some of the conceptual issues with this criticism in relation to the interpretation of the quasi-local Misner-Sharp mass, and the fact that our description of cosmological black holes does not impose any assumptions about matter accretion.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Vassili G. Matsos, Joseph Newton, Karl Smith, Joel Hochstetter, Ravi Jaiswar, Wunna Kyaw, Aimee McNamara, Zdenka Kuncic, Sushma Nagaraja Grellscheid, Celine Boehm
We present the first proof-of-concept simulations of detectors using biomaterials to detect particle interactions. The essential idea behind a "DNA detector" involves the attachment of a forest of precisely-sequenced single or double-stranded nucleic acids from a thin holding layer made of a high-density material. Incoming particles break a series of strands along a roughly co-linear chain of interaction sites and the severed segments then fall to a collection area. Since the sequences of base pairs in nucleic acid molecules can be precisely amplified and measured using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the original spatial position of each broken strand inside the detector can be reconstructed with nm precision. Motivated by the potential use as a low-energy directional particle tracker, we perform the first Monte Carlo simulations of particle interactions inside a DNA detector. We compare the track topology as a function of incoming direction, energy, and particle type for a range of ionising particles. While particle identification and energy reconstruction might be challenging without a significant scale-up, the excellent potential angular and spatial resolution ($\lesssim 25^\circ$ axial resolution for a keV-scale particles and nm-scale track segments) are clear advantages of this concept. We conclude that a DNA detector could be a cost-effective, portable, and powerful new particle detection technology. We outline the outstanding experimental challenges, and suggest directions for future laboratory tests.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Giovanni Pierobon, Javier Redondo, Yvonne Y. Y. Wong
Axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) are some of the most popular candidates for dark matter, with several viable production scenarios that make different predictions. In the scenario in which the axion is born after inflation, its field develops significant inhomogeneity and evolves in a highly nonlinear fashion. Understanding the eventual abundance and distribution of axionic dark matter in this scenario therefore requires dedicated numerical simulations. So far the community has focused its efforts on simulations of the QCD axion, a model that predicts a specific temperature dependence for the axion mass. Here, we go beyond the QCD axion, and perform a suite of simulations over a range of possible temperature dependencies labelled by a power-law index. We study the complex dynamics of the axion field, including the scaling of cosmic strings and domain walls, the spectrum of non-relativistic axions, the lifetime and internal structure of axitons, and the seeds of miniclusters. In particular, we quantify how much the string-wall network contributes to the dark matter abundance as a function of how quickly the axion mass grows. We find that a temperature-independent model produces 25\% more dark matter than the standard misalignment calculation. In contrast to this generic ALP, QCD axion models are almost six times less efficient at producing dark matter. Given the flourishing experimental campaign to search for ALPs, these results have potentially wide implications for direct and indirect searches.
Jodi Cooley, Tongyan Lin, W. Hugh Lippincott, Tracy R. Slatyer, Tien-Tien Yu, Daniel S. Akerib, Tsuguo Aramaki, Daniel Baxter, Torsten Bringmann, Ray Bunker, Daniel Carney, Susana Cebrián, Thomas Y. Chen, Priscilla Cushman, C. E. Dahl, Rouven Essig, Alden Fan, Richard Gaitskell, Cristano Galbiati, Graciela B. Gelmini, Graham K. Giovanetti, Guillaume Giroux, Luca Grandi, J. Patrick Harding, Scott Haselschwardt, Lauren Hsu, Shunsaku Horiuchi, Yonatan Kahn, Doojin Kim, Geon-Bo Kim, Scott Kravitz, V. A. Kudryavtsev, Noah Kurinsky, Rafael F. Lang, Rebecca K. Leane, Benjamin V. Lehmann, Cecilia Levy, Shengchao Li, Ben Loer, Aaron Manalaysay, C. J Martoff, Gopolang Mohlabeng, M. E. Monzani, Alexander St J. Murphy, Russell Neilson, Harry N. Nelson, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, K. J. Palladino, Aditya Parikh, Jong-Chul Park, Kerstin Perez, Stefano Profumo, Nirmal Raj, Brandon M. Roach, Tarek Saab, Maria Luísa Sarsa, Richard Schnee, Sally Shaw, Seodong Shin, Kuver Sinha, Kelly Stifter, Aritoki Suzuki, M. Szydagis, Tim M. P. Tait, Volodymyr Takhistov, Yu-Dai Tsai, S. E. Vahsen, Edoardo Vitagliano, Philip von Doetinchem, Gensheng Wang, Shawn Westerdale, David A. Williams, Xin Xiang, Liang Yang
This report summarizes the findings of the CF1 Topical Subgroup to Snowmass 2021, which was focused on particle dark matter. One of the most important scientific goals of the next decade is to reveal the nature of dark matter (DM). To accomplish this goal, we must delve deep, to cover high priority targets including weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs), and search wide, to explore as much motivated DM parameter space as possible. A diverse, continuous portfolio of experiments at large, medium, and small scales that includes both direct and indirect detection techniques maximizes the probability of discovering particle DM. Detailed calibrations and modeling of signal and background processes are required to make a convincing discovery. In the event that a candidate particle is found through different means, for example at a particle collider, the program described in this report is also essential to show that it is consistent with the actual cosmological DM. The US has a leading role in both direct and indirect detection dark matter experiments -- to maintain this leading role, it is imperative to continue funding major experiments and support a robust R\&D program.
Andrea Caputo, Alexander J. Millar, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Edoardo Vitagliano
The dark photon is a massive hypothetical particle that interacts with the Standard Model by kinetically mixing with the visible photon. For small values of the mixing parameter, dark photons can evade cosmological bounds to be a viable dark matter candidate. Due to the similarities with the electromagnetic signals generated by axions, several bounds on dark photon signals are simply reinterpretations of historical bounds set by axion haloscopes. However, the dark photon has a property that the axion does not: an intrinsic polarisation. Due to the rotation of the Earth, accurately accounting for this polarisation is nontrivial, highly experiment-dependent, and depends upon assumptions about the dark photon's production mechanism. We show that if one does account for the DP polarisation, and the rotation of the Earth, an experiment's discovery reach can be enhanced by over an order of magnitude. We detail the strategies that would need to be taken to properly optimise a dark photon search. These include judiciously choosing the location and orientation of the experiment, as well as strategically timing any repeated measurements. Experiments located at $\pm$35$^\circ$ or $\pm$55$^\circ$ latitude, making three observations at different times of the sidereal day, can achieve a sensitivity that is fully optimised and insensitive to the dark photon's polarisation state, and hence its production mechanism. We also point out that several well-known searches for axions employ techniques for testing signals that preclude their ability to set exclusion limits on dark photons, and hence should not be reinterpreted as such.
Bradley J. Kavanagh, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare
Sep 27, 2016·astro-ph.CO·PDF Directionally sensitive dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments present the only way to observe the full three-dimensional velocity distribution of the Milky Way halo local to Earth. In this work we compare methods for extracting information about the local DM velocity distribution from a set of recoil directions and energies in a range of hypothetical directional and non-directional experiments. We compare a model independent empirical parameterisation of the velocity distribution based on an angular discretisation with a model dependent approach which assumes knowledge of the functional form of the distribution. The methods are tested under three distinct halo models which cover a range of possible phase space structures for the local velocity distribution: a smooth Maxwellian halo, a tidal stream and a debris flow. In each case we use simulated directional data to attempt to reconstruct the shape and parameters describing each model as well as the DM particle properties. We find that the empirical parametrisation is able to make accurate unbiased reconstructions of the DM mass and cross section as well as capture features in the underlying velocity distribution in certain directions without any assumptions about its true functional form. We also find that by extracting directionally averaged velocity parameters with this method one can discriminate between halo models with different classes of substructure.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare
Direct detection of dark matter with directional sensitivity is a promising concept for improving the search for weakly interacting massive particles. With information on the direction of WIMP induced nuclear recoils one has access to the full 3-dimensional velocity distribution of the local dark matter halo and thus a potential avenue for studying WIMP astrophysics. Furthermore the unique angular signature of the WIMP recoil distribution provides a crucial discriminant from neutrinos which currently represent the ultimate background to direct detection experiments.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Alberto Krone-Martins, Celine Boehm, Roland M. Crocker
Jun 20, 2023·astro-ph.GA·PDF A growing number of Milky Way globular clusters have been identified to possess a noticeable degree of solid-body rotation. For several clusters, the combination of stellar proper motions and radial velocities allows for 3-dimensional spin axes to be extracted. In this paper we consider the orientations of these spin axes, and ask whether they are correlated with any other properties of the clusters -- either global properties to do with their orbits and origin, or internal properties related to the cluster composition. We discuss the possibility of alignments between the spin axes of globular clusters, chemodynamical groupings, and their orbital poles. We also point out a previously unidentified negative correlation between the measured gamma-ray emissivities and the inclination of the globular cluster spins with respect to the line of sight. Given that this correlation is not present in other wavelengths, we cannot conclusively attribute it solely to sampling bias. If the correlation holds up to scrutiny with more data, it may be indicative of sources of anisotropic gamma-ray emission in globular clusters. We discuss the plausibility of such an anisotropy arising from a population of dynamically formed millisecond pulsars with some degree of spin-orbit alignment.
Ben Carew, Ashlee R. Caddell, Tarak Nath Maity, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare
The search for sub-GeV dark matter via scattering on electrons has ramped up in the last few years. Like in the case of dark matter scattering on nuclei, electron-recoil-based searches also face an ultimate background in the form of neutrinos. The so-called ``neutrino fog'' refers to the range of open dark-matter parameter space where the background of neutrinos can potentially prevent a conclusive discovery claim of a dark matter signal from being made. In this study, we map the neutrino fog for a range of electron recoil experiments based on silicon, germanium, xenon and argon targets. In analogy to the nuclear recoil case, we also calculate the ''edge'' to the neutrino fog, which can be used as a visual guide to where neutrinos become an important background -- this boundary excludes some parts of the key theory milestones used to motivate these experiments.
Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Giovanni Pierobon
The velocity distribution of cold dark matter within galaxies is expected to exhibit ultra-fine-grained substructure as a result of the many foldings of an initially smooth phase-space sheet under gravity. The innumerable folds of this sheet in the inner regions of a galactic halo would appear on solar-system scales like an extremely large number of spatially overlapping streams of dark matter particles. Some of these streams may also receive amplified densities if dark matter undergoes enhanced clustering in the early Universe, as is the case for axions in the post-inflationary scenario. This ultra-fine-grained dark matter substructure is usually considered irrelevant and undetectable for most direct detection experiments, but for axion haloscopes, this may not be the case. We develop and explore several plausible models for the degree of fine-grained axion dark matter substructure so as to evaluate its impact on the detectability of axions. We find that not only is this substructure detectable in haloscope experiments, but that it may enhance the detectability of the axion if data is analysed with a high-enough frequency resolution. This conclusion motivates ongoing high-resolution analyses of axion data by haloscope collaborations, which have the potential to reveal evidence of the QCD axion even if their nominal experimental sensitivity does not reach the required level under the Standard Halo Model assumption.
Utkarsh Bhura, David J. E. Marsh, Bradley R. Johnson, Karl van Bibber, Mallory Helfenbein, Bradley J. Kavanagh, Matthew Nelson, Ciaran A. J. O'Hare, Giovanni Pierobon, Gray Rybka, Luca Visinelli
Axion dark matter (DM) is predicted to convert into radio waves in neutron star magnetospheres. We assess the detectability of this signal using a 5 m radio telescope to be installed at the Fan Mountain Observatory, operating in the UHF, L- and S-bands from 0.5 to 4~GHz. We demonstrate that such a telescope can search new parameter space for axion-like particles over a broad range from $2\,μ\text{eV}<m_a<17\,μ\text{eV}$ for axion-photon couplings $g_{aγγ} \gtrsim 2\times 10^{-12}\text{ GeV}^{-1}$ with a three year observing period assuming the standard halo model -- improving neutron star observations by more than an order of magnitude. The search is broadband and is thus complementary to other techniques in the same frequency range. We describe in detail our neutron star population model, noise model, and proposed observing strategy. Most constraining power comes from neutron stars at the Galactic centre, where the smooth DM halo is densest. If a DM spike exists at the Galactic centre, the search is sensitive in the QCD axion model band. UHF and L-band observations (0.5 to 2~GHz) represent the pathfinder phase of a wider program we call ``Axion Search with Telescope for Radio Astronomy'' (ASTRA). Future higher mass searches aimed at discovery potential for the post-inflation axion require further hardware development to cover S, C, X and Ku bands (2 to 18~GHz).