A fourth generation neutrino with a standard Higgs scalar solves both the solar neutrino and dark matter problems

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) can solve both the solar neutrino and dark matter problems. In this paper we show that a fourth generation Dirac neutrino with mass between 4–10 GeV, in conjunction with the standard, albeit light, Higgs with mass of order 400 MeV, is a candidate WIMP. We describe both the astrophysical and particle physics consequences of this new WIMP.     

Upper limit on the cross section for elastic neutralino-nucleon scattering in a neutrino experiment at the Baksan Underground Scintillator Telescope

The results of a neutrino experiment that involved 24.12 yr of live time of observation of muons from the lower Earth’s hemisphere with the aid of the Baksan Underground Scintillator Telescope are presented. In the problem of searches for a signal from the annihilation of dark matter in the Sun, an upper limit on the cross section for the elastic scattering of a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) on a nucleon was obtained at a 90% confidence level from an analysis of data accumulated within 21.15 yr of live time of observation. A neutralino in a nonminimal supersymmetric theory was considered for a WIMP. The best limit at the Baksan Underground Scintillator Telescope on the cross section for spin-dependent neutralino interactionwith a proton corresponds to 3×10^?4 pb for the neutralino mass of 210 GeV/c ². This limit is three orders of magnitude more stringent than similar limits obtained in experiments that detected directly WIMP scattering on target nuclei.     

New limits on dark matter from Super-Kamiokande

The signals observed at the direct detection experiments DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST could be explained by light WIMPs with sizeable spin-independent cross sections with nucleons. The capture and subsequent annihilation of such particles in the Sun would induce neutrino signals in the GeV range which may be observed at Super-Kamiokande. We determine the rate of upward stopping muons and fully contained events at Super-Kamiokande for various possible WIMP annihilation channels. This allows us to provide strong constraints on the cross section of WIMPs with nucleons. We find that the DAMA and CoGeNT signals are inconsistent with standard thermal WIMPs annihilating dominantly into neutrino or tau pairs. We also provide limits for spin-dependent WIMP nucleus scattering for masses up to 80 GeV. These exclude the DAMA favored region if WIMPs annihilate even subdominantly into neutrinos, taus, bottoms or charms.     

Excluding light asymmetric bosonic dark matter

We argue that current neutron star observations exclude asymmetric bosonic noninteracting dark matter in the range from 2 keV to 16 GeV, including the 5-15 GeV range favored by DAMA and CoGeNT. If bosonic weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are composite of fermions, the same limits apply provided the compositeness scale is higher than ～1012 GeV (for WIMP mass ～1 GeV). In the case of repulsive self-interactions, we exclude the large range of WIMP masses and interaction cross sections which complements the constraints imposed by observations of the Bullet Cluster.     

Exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section from the cryogenic dark matter search

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) employs Ge and Si detectors to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via their elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei while discriminating against interactions of background particles. CDMS data, accounting for the neutron background, give limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross section that exclude unexplored parameter space above 10 GeV/c2 WIMP mass and, at >75% C.L., the entire 3sigma allowed region for the WIMP signal reported by the DAMA experiment.     

Limits on light WIMPs with a 1 kg-scale germanium detector at 160 eVee physics threshold at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory

We report results of a search for light weakly interacting massive particle(WIMP) dark matter from the CDEX-1 experiment at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory(CJPL). Constraints on WIMP-nucleon spin-independent(SI) and spin-dependent(SD) couplings are derived with a physics threshold of 160 eVee, from an exposure of 737.1 kg-days. The SI and SD limits extend the lower reach of light WIMPs to 2 GeV and improve over our earlier bounds at WIMP mass less than 6 GeV.     

Limits on spin-independent interactions of weakly interacting massive particles with nucleons from the two-tower run of the cryogenic dark matter search

We report new results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. Two towers, each consisting of six detectors, were operated for 74.5 live days, giving spectrum-weighted exposures of 34 (12) kg d for the Ge (Si) targets after cuts, averaged over recoil energies 10-100 keV for a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) mass of 60 GeV/c2. A blind analysis was conducted, incorporating improved techniques for rejecting surface events. No WIMP signal exceeding expected backgrounds was observed. When combined with our previous results from Soudan, the 90% C.L. upper limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section is 1.6 x 10(-43) cm2 from Ge and 3 x 10(-42) cm2 from Si, for a WIMP mass of 60 GeV/c2. The combined limit from Ge (Si) is a factor of 2.5 (10) lower than our previous results and constrains predictions of supersymmetric models.     

Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross sections from the XENON10 experiment

XENON10 is an experiment to directly detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which may comprise the bulk of the nonbaryonic dark matter in our Universe. We report new results for spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions with 129Xe and 131Xe from 58.6 live days of operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Based on the nonobservation of a WIMP signal in 5.4 kg of fiducial liquid xenon mass, we exclude previously unexplored regions in the theoretically allowed parameter space for neutralinos. We also exclude a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass in the range of approximately 10 GeV/c2-2 TeV/c2 as a dark matter candidate under standard assumptions for its density and distribution in the galactic halo.     

First results from the XENON10 dark matter experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory

The XENON10 experiment at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory uses a 15 kg xenon dual phase time projection chamber to search for dark matter weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The detector measures simultaneously the scintillation and the ionization produced by radiation in pure liquid xenon to discriminate signal from background down to 4.5 keV nuclear-recoil energy. A blind analysis of 58.6 live days of data, acquired between October 6, 2006, and February 14, 2007, and using a fiducial mass of 5.4 kg, excludes previously unexplored parameter space, setting a new 90% C.L. upper limit for the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section of 8.8x10(-44) cm2 for a WIMP mass of 100 GeV/c2, and 4.5x10(-44) cm2 for a WIMP mass of 30 GeV/c2. This result further constrains predictions of supersymmetric models.     

First results from the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in the Soudan Underground Laboratory

We report the first results from a search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search experiment at the Soudan Underground Laboratory. Four Ge and two Si detectors were operated for 52.6 live days, providing 19.4 kg d of Ge net exposure after cuts for recoil energies between 10 and 100 keV. A blind analysis was performed using only calibration data to define the energy threshold and selection criteria for nuclear-recoil candidates. Using the standard dark-matter halo and nuclear-physics WIMP model, these data set the world's lowest exclusion limits on the coherent WIMP-nucleon scalar cross section for all WIMP masses above 15 GeV/c2, ruling out a significant range of neutralino supersymmetric models. The minimum of this limit curve at the 90% C.L. is 4 x 10(-43) cm2 at a WIMP mass of 60 GeV/c2.     

Looking for SUSY with EDELWEISS-I and-II

The latest results obtained by the EDELWEISS WIMP (weakly interacting massive particles) direct detection experiment using three heat-and-ionization 320-g germanium bolometers are given. Presently the most sensitive WIMP direct detection experiment for WIMP mass >30 GeV, EDELWEISSI is testing a first region of SUSY models compatible with accelerator constraints. The status and main characteristics of EDELWEISS-II, involving in a first stage 28 germanium bolometers and able to accommodate up to 120 detectors, are briefly presented, together with neutron background estimates.     

Constraints and tests of the OPERA superluminal neutrinos

The superluminal neutrinos detected by OPERA indicate Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) of the neutrino sector at the order of 10(-5). We study the implications of the result in this work. We find that such a large LIV implied by OPERA data will make the neutrino production process π → μ + ν(μ) kinematically forbidden for a neutrino energy greater than about 5 GeV. The OPERA detection of neutrinos at 40 GeV can constrain the LIV parameter to be smaller than 3×10(-7). Furthermore, the neutrino decay in the LIV framework will modify the neutrino spectrum greatly. The atmospheric neutrino spectrum measured by the IceCube Collaboration can constrain the LIV parameter to the level of 10(-12). The future detection of astrophysical neutrinos of galactic sources is expected to be able to give an even stronger constraint on the LIV parameter of neutrinos.     

Dark matter, neutron stars, and strange quark matter

We show that self-annihilating weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter accreted onto neutron stars may provide a mechanism to seed compact objects with long-lived lumps of strange quark matter, or strangelets, for WIMP masses above a few GeV. This effect may trigger a conversion of most of the star into a strange star. We use an energy estimate for the long-lived strangelet based on the Fermi-gas model combined with the MIT bag model to set a new limit on the possible values of the WIMP mass that can be especially relevant for subdominant species of massive neutralinos.     

Vector WIMP miracle

Weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) is well known to be a good candidate for dark matter, and it is also predicted by many new physics models beyond the standard model at the TeV scale. We found that, if the WIMP is a vector particle (spin-one particle) which is associated with some gauge symmetry broken at the TeV scale, the Higgs mass is often predicted to be 120–125 GeV, which is very consistent with the result of Higgs searches recently reported by ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider experiment. In this Letter, we consider the vector WIMP using a non-linear sigma model in order to confirm this result as general as possible in a bottom-up approach. Near-future prospects to detect the vector WIMP at both direct and indirect detection experiments of dark matter are also discussed.     

θ_(13) and the Higgs Mass from High Scale Supersymmetry

In the framework in which supersymmetry is used for understanding fermion masses rather than stabilizing the electroweak scale, we elaborate on the phenomenological analysis for the neutrino physics. A relatively large sinθ13 0.13 is naturally obtained. The model further predicts vanishingly small CP violation in neutrino oscillations. While the high scale supersymmetry generically results in a Higgs mass of about 141 GeV, our model reduces this mass to 126 GeV via introducing SU(2)L triplet fields which make the electroweak vacuum metastable (with a safe lifetime) and also contribute to neutrino masses.     

May heavy neutrinos solve underground and cosmic-ray puzzles?

Primordial heavy neutrinos of the fourth generation might explain different astrophysical puzzles. The simplest fourth-neutrino scenario is consistent with known fourth-neutrino physics, cosmic ray antimatter, cosmic gamma fluxes, and positive signals in underground detectors for a very narrow neutrino mass window (46–47 GeV). However, accounting for the constraint of underground experiment CDMS prohibits solution of cosmic-ray puzzles in this scenario. We have analyzed extended heavy-neutrino models related to the clumpiness of neutrino density, new interactions in heavy-neutrino annihilation, neutrino asymmetry, and neutrino decay. We found that, in these models, the cosmic-ray imprint may fit the positive underground signals in DAMA/Nal experiment in the entire mass range 46–70 GeV allowed from uncertainties of electroweak parameters, while satisfaction of the CDMS constraint reduces the mass range to around 50 GeV, where all data can come to consent in the framework of the considered hypothesis. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Effect of thallium impurities in the DAMA experiment on the allowed parameter space for inelastic dark matter

The inelastic dark matter scenario was proposed to reconcile the DAMA annual modulation with null results from other experiments. In this scenario, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) scatter into an excited state, split from the ground state by an energy δ comparable to the available kinetic energy of a galactic WIMP. We note that for large splittings δ the dominant scattering at DAMA can occur off of thallium nuclei, with A～205, which are present as a dopant at the 10(-3) level in NaI(Tl) crystals. For a WIMP mass mχ≈100 GeV/c2 and δ≈200 keV, we find a region in δ-mχ-parameter space which is consistent with all experiments. These parameters, in particular, can be probed in experiments with thallium in their targets, such as KIMS, but are inaccessible to lighter target experiments. Depending on the tail of the WIMP velocity distribution, a highly modulated signal may or may not appear at CRESST-II.     

Upper bound on the scale of Majorana-neutrino mass generation

We derive a model-independent upper bound on the scale of Majorana-neutrino mass generation. The upper bound is 4pi (nu2)/square root3 m(nu), where nu approximately 246 GeV is the weak scale and m(nu) is the Majorana-neutrino mass. For neutrino masses implied by neutrino oscillation experiments, all but one of these bounds are less than the Planck scale, and they are all within a few orders of magnitude of the grand-unification scale.     

New limits on interactions between weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons obtained with CsI(Tl) crystal detectors

New limits are presented on the cross section for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering in the KIMS CsI(T?) detector array at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory. The exposure used for these results is 24?524.3 kg·days. Nuclei recoiling from WIMP interactions are identified by a pulse shape discrimination method. A low energy background due to alpha emitters on the crystal surfaces is identified and taken into account in the analysis. The detected numbers of nuclear recoils are consistent with zero and 90% confidence level upper limits on the WIMP interaction rates are set for electron equivalent energies from 3 to 11 keV. The 90% upper limit of the nuclear recoil event rate for 3.6-5.8 keV corresponding to 2-4 keV in NaI(T?) is 0.0098 counts/kg/keV/day, which is below the annual modulation amplitude reported by DAMA. This is incompatible with interpretations that enhance the modulation amplitude such as inelastic dark matter models. We establish the most stringent cross section limits on spin-dependent WIMP-proton elastic scattering for the WIMP masses greater than 20 GeV/c2.     

Search for third-generation scalar leptoquarks in pp at square root s=1.96 TeV

We report on a search for charge-1/3 third-generation leptoquarks (LQ) produced in pp collisions at square root s =1.96 TeV using the D0 detector at Fermilab. Third-generation leptoquarks are assumed to be produced in pairs and to decay to a tau neutrino and a b quark with branching fraction B. We place upper limits on sigma(pp --> LQLQ)B2 as a function of the leptoquark mass M(LQ). Assuming B=1, we exclude at the 95% confidence level third-generation scalar leptoquarks with M(LQ)<229 GeV.