Performance of a lithium fluoride bolometer for Tokyo dark matter search experiment

The performance of a 21-g lithium fluoride bolometer is presented. The background spectrum was measured in the surface laboratory. We derive an exclusion plot for the spin-dependent coupled Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) cross section.     

Limits to the muon flux from neutralino annihilations in the Sun with the AMANDA detector

A search for an excess of muon–neutrinos from neutralino annihilations in the Sun has been performed with the AMANDA-II neutrino detector using data collected in 143.7 days of live-time in 2001. No excess over the expected atmospheric neutrino background has been observed. An upper limit at 90% confidence level has been obtained on the annihilation rate of captured neutralinos in the Sun, as well as the corresponding muon flux limit at the Earth, both as functions of the neutralino mass in the range 100–5000 GeV.     

Measurement of Na and I recoil discrimination and detection efficiency in a cooled ‘UVIS’ NaI crystal for dark matter searches

The UVIS dark matter detector, proposed by Spooner and Smith (Phys. Lett. B 314 (1993) 430), consists of < 1000 ppm Tl doped NaI scintillator operated at 100-200 K, with measurement of UV and visible scintillation components used to discriminate between electrons (gammas) and Na or I recoils. Presented here are results of measurements of the gamma/nuclear recoil discrimination power of a Kyropolous NaI (0.5 ppm Tl) UVIS test detector operated at 160 K, with monoenergetic neutrons used to induce nuclear recoils via elastic scattering. Defining the statistical gain factor for N events as , the coefficient C_m was measured as a function of photoelectron pulse height. At 40 photoelectrons C_m was found to be 0.5 (corresponding to 90% rejection of gammas with 20% loss of neutron events). The scintillation efficiency for Na and I recoils relative to electrons was also measured at 160 K and found to be 35 ± 5% for Na recoils and 10 ± 2% for iodine.     

Gamma-ray and synchrotron emission from neutralino annihilation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

We calculate the expected flux of γ-ray and radio emission from the LMC due to neutralino annihilation. Using rotation curve data to probe the density profile and assuming a minimum disk, we describe the dark matter halo of the LMC using models predicted by N-body simulations. We consider a range of density profiles including the NFW profile, a modified NFW profile proposed by Hayashi et al. (2003) to account for the effects of tidal stripping, and an isothermal sphere with a core. We find that the γ-ray flux expected from these models may be detectable by GLAST for a significant part of the neutralino parameter space. The prospects for existing and upcoming Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (ACTs) are less optimistic, as unrealistically long exposures are required for detection. However, the effects of adiabatic compression due to the baryonic component may improve the chances for detection by ACTs. The maximum flux we predict is well below EGRET's measurements and thus EGRET does not constrain the parameter space. The expected synchrotron emission generally lies below the observed radio emission from the LMC in the frequency range of 19.7–8550 MHz. As long as σv<2×10⁻²⁶ cm³ s⁻¹ for a neutralino mass of 50 GeV, the observed radio emission is not primarily due to neutralinos and is consistent with the assumption that the main source is cosmic rays. We find that the predicted fluxes, obtained by integrating over the entire LMC, are not very strongly dependent on the inner slope of the halo profile, varying by less than an order of magnitude for the range of profiles we considered.