1. Introduction
At present there exists plenty of evidence of the existence of dark matter i) from cosmological observations, DASI [
1], COBE/DMR Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations [
2] as well as the recent WMAP [
3] and Planck [
4] data. It is, however, essential to directly detect such matter in order to unravel the nature of its constituents.
At present there exist many such candidates, called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs).
WIMP direct searches have been performed by exploiting WIMP-Nucleus elastic scattering, see, e.g., the collaborations PandaX-II [
5], XENONIT [
6,
7] and CDMSLite [
8]. No WIMPs have been directly detected, but quite stringent exclusion limits have been extracted for the WIMP-Nucleon scattering cross section vs dark matter mass, see, e.g., the recent review [
9].
Spin dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions can lead to inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering with a non negligible probability, provided that the energy of the excited state is sufficiently low. So, for sufficiently heavy WIMPs, the available energy via the high velocity tail of the M-B distribution maybe adequate to allow scattering to low lying excited states of of certain targets, e.g. of
keV for the
excited state of
I, the 39.6 keV for the first excited
of
Xe, the 35.48 keV for the first excited
state of
Te and the 9.4 keV for the first excited
state of
Kr . In fact calculations of the event rates for the inelastic WIMP-nucleus transitions involving the above systems have been performed [
10].
The interest in the inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering has recently been revived by a new proposal of searching for the collisional de-excitation of metastable nuclear isomers [
11]. The longevity of these isomers is related to a strong suppression of
and
-transitions, typically inhibited by a large difference in the angular momentum for the nuclear transition. The collisional de-excitation by dark matter is possible since heavy dark matter particles can have a momentum exchange with the nucleus comparable to the inverse nuclear size. In fact the transition can lead to the ground sate or a lower excited state. In the latter case one may detect the
ray following the de-excitation of the final state, thus providing an extra signature against background.
2. Expressions for the Cross Section
The evaluation of the differential rate for a WIMP induced transition
for an isomeric nuclear state at excitation energy
to another one
(or to the ground state) proceeds in a fashion similar to that of the standard inelastic WIMP induced transition, except that the kinematics is different. We will make a judicious choice of th final nuclear state that it can decay in a standard way to the ground state or to another lower excited state:
with
the dark matter particle (WIMP. )Assuming that all particles involved are non relativistic we get:
where
is the momentum transfer to the nucleus
. So the above equation becomes
Where
is the cosine of the angle between the incident WIMP and the recoiling nucleus,
the oncoming WIMP velocity,
the nuclear recoil energy and
the reduced mass of the WIMP-nucleus system , i.e.
The differential cross section is given by
where
is the nuclear matrix element of the WIMP-nucleus interaction in dimensionless units and
the standard weak interaction strength.
We find it convenient to express it in terms of the nucleon cross section so that our results are independent of the scale parameters
and
. The total WIMP-nucleon cross section can easily be obtained (see the Appendix I of ref. [
12]). Thus Equation (
5) can be cast in the form:
Folding Equation (
6) with the velocity distribution we find
1
where
is the nuclear recoil energy,
is the step function and
given by the velocity distribution
Note the dependence of the cross section on the recoil energy comes in two ways: i) From the nuclear form factor and ii) from the minimum required velocities and in the folding with the velocity distribution.
We will specialize our results in the commonly used Maxwell- Boltzmann (MB) distribution in the local frame [
12]. The integrals involved can by computed analytically
where
where
The functions depend on the momentum transfer. This depends on the specific nuclear target and will be discussed below.
3. Nuclear Structure
The isomeric nuclei are deformed and have complicated structure. So the usual technics employed in obtaining the structure of atomic nuclei terms of the spherical shell model do not apply. We find it simple and appropriate to use the Nilsson model in which a cylindrical harmonic oscillator is used instead of a spherical one, characterized by a deformation , reflecting the departure of the cylindrical shape from sphericity. The single particle orbitals in the Nilsson model are labeled by , where N is the total number of the oscillator quanta, is the number of quanta along the z-axis of cylindrical symmetry, while () is the projection of the orbital (total) angular momentum on the z-axis.
In what follows it will be of interest to consider the expansions of the Nilsson orbitals in the spherical shell model basis
, where
N is the principal quantum number,
l (
j) is the orbital (total) angular momentum, and
is the projection of the total angular momentum on the
z-axis. The necessary expansions have been obtained as described in Ref. [
13] and are found found in the Append IV of ref. [
12] for three different values of the deformation
.
4. The Nucleus Ta
This nucleus is preferred for experimental reasons. The even-even core of
Ta
is
Hf
, for which the experimental value of the collective deformation variable
is 0.2779 [
14], thus the Nilsson deformation
[
15] is 0.2640 .
Several different theoretical calculations, including covariant density functional theory using the DDME2 functional [
16,
17], Skyrmre-Hartree-Fock-BCS
2 [
18], as well as a two quasiparticle plus rotor model in the mean field represented by a deformed Woods-Saxon potential [
19] agree that the first neutron orbital lying above the Fermi surface of the core nucleus
Hf
is the 9/2[624] orbital, while the first proton orbital lying above the Fermi surface of the core nucleus
Hf
is the 9/2[514] orbital. Therefore it is safe to assume that these two orbitals will play a major role in the formation of the
isomer state of
Ta.
It is instructive to consider the formation of the above mentioned states under the light of the expansions of the Nilsson orbitals in terms of spherical shell model orbitals, found in the Append IV of ref. [
12].
The orbitals participating in the formation of the isomer, proton 9/2[514] and neutron 9/2[624], are both intruder orbitals, thus the main contribution comes from the component of the former and the component of the latter.
The orbitals participating in the formation of the excited state are the proton 9/2[514] (intruder) and neutron 5/2[512] (normal parity) orbitals, from which the leading contribution will come from the and vectors respectively.
5. Some Features Regarding the Target Ta
We begin by considering the transition of the isomeric
state to the
state. The momentum dependence of the cross section arising from the velocity distribution for a transition energy is
keV is given in
Figure 1.
To proceed further we need to determine the structure of the target
Ta. As explained in
Section 4 in the context of the Nilsson model we can consider the proton orbital
[514] both in the initial state
and the final
. Furthermore for the neutrons we use
[624] for the
and the
[512] for the
. To proceed further we use the expansion of the Nilsson orbitals into shell model states found in Appendix IV of [
12] for a deformation parameter 0.30. Note that in this case only the neutrons can undergo transitions, while the protons are just spectators.
5.1. Shell Model Form Factors
The vector and axial vector reduced nuclear matrix elements can be obtained using the standard technics as described in the Appendix II and Appendix III of [
12] with the quantities with subscript 1 indicate neutrons and those with 2 are associated with protons. Thus we find:
In the above expressions
are the single particle form factors. The first two integers indicate orbital angular momentum quantum numbers
, while the last integer
gives the multipolarity of the transition. The quantity
u corresponds to
, where
is the harmonic oscillator length parameter. The relevant form factors are exhibited in
Figure 2(a).
The relevant nuclear ME is given by:
Its momentum dependence is exhibited in
Figure 3(a). We should note that the large value of the matrix element in the case of large
is due to the normalization adopted to make the matrix element independent of the scale. Recall that a combination factor appear in the cross section. In the present work we will adopt
.
5.2. Phenomenological Form Factors
It is generally believed that the shell model single particle factors lead to large suppression. So some phenomenological form factors. One example is the the Helm like single particle form factors:
Our treatment means that the radial integrals are independent of the angular momentum quantum numbers
. The obtained results are exhibited in
Figure 2(b) (odd (parity changing) transitions are relevant). The reduced matrix elements for the vector and the axial vector are:
where
are the Helm single particle form factors. The nuclear matrix element is:
The momentum dependence of this ME is exhibited in
Figure 3(b) .
5.3. Some Results for Ta
The numerical value of
in Equation (
7) for
, is 0.068 for A=180, expressed in units of keV
. The plot of for
vs the previous one multiplied with 0.063. We prefer to express it as a function of
in units of keV, i.e
Figure 4(a). It can be shown that a similar expression holds for the rate
, see
Figure 4(b).
The expressions for
and
R for
Ta can be obtained using the relevant values for the nucleon (see the Appendix I of ref. [
12]):
cmy (kinematics factor), yielding . This leads to the total rate:
y
For orientation purposes we employ here
One can integrate the differential cross section over the recoil energy
and multiply with the total nucleon to obtain the WIMP-Nucleus cross section as a function of the wimp mass
this is exhibited in
Figure 5(a)
In the same fashion one can obtain differential rate
since the WIMP density used in obtaining the densities is the same. The situation is, however, changed if one is comparing the obtained differential rate relative to the total rate for the nucleon at some fixed value of the WIMP mass. We note that the overall momentum dependence comes by combining the effect of the velocity distribution, see
Figure 1, and the momentum dependence of the nuclear matrix element as given by
Figure 3(b). The exhibited differential rate contains, of course, the WIMP mass dependence arising from the WIMP density in our galaxy. The thus obtained differential rate in units total rate of the nucleon for
is exhibited in
Figure 4(b).
One can integrate the differential rate over the recoil energy
and multiply with the total nucleon rate to obtain the the total WIMP-Nucleus rate section as a function of the wimp mass
this is exhibited in
Figure 5(b).
6. Discussion
We have seen that, not unexpectedly, the nuclear ME encountered in the inelastic WIMP-nucleus scattering involving isomeric nuclei is much smaller than that involved in the elastic process considered in the standard WIMP searches. This occurs for two reasons: a) the form factor in the elastic being favorable and b) in the elastic case the cross section is proportional to the mass number . In the present case the nuclear matrix element for Ta, as indicated by the coefficients appearing in Equation (14), is not unusually small compared to other typical inelastic processes. The Nilsson model is expected to work well in the case of Ta, but he obtained event rate is quite small. It seems that the mechanism of suppression encountered in the standard decay of the isomeric state, may somewhat persist in the WIMP-nucleus cross section as well.
The expected events in this work have been obtained with with an unrealistic target mass
particles, compared to more realistic
[
12]. On the other hand an estimated half-life time limit is
years (90% 350 C.L.) [
20]. Further improvement can be achieved using in the experiments larger mass of the isomer combined with a better detection efficiency. Furthermore the experiments can exploit the signal provided by the subsequent standard decay of the
state to the ground state. This is an advantage not available in the conventional WIMP searches.
Funding
I would like to thank the organising committee of the Athens "Physics Beyond the Standard Model in Leptonic
Acknowledgments
The author J. D. V is indebted to Rick Casten for useful comments and suggestions.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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1 |
The factor , with dimension of inverse velocity, was introduced for convenience. A compensating factor will be used in multiplying the particle density obtaining the flux. Thus we get the traditional formulas, flux=particle density × velocity and rate= flux × cross section. |
2 |
see also N. Minkov, private communication. |
Figure 1.
The allowed momentum distribution arising the maximum allowed velocity (escape velocity) of the distribution, in the case of Ta. The fine solid line, the thick solid line, short dash, short long dash, and long dash correspond to the WIMP masses . The transition energy is keV.
Figure 1.
The allowed momentum distribution arising the maximum allowed velocity (escape velocity) of the distribution, in the case of Ta. The fine solid line, the thick solid line, short dash, short long dash, and long dash correspond to the WIMP masses . The transition energy is keV.
Figure 2.
The shell model form factors (a) for F(6,5,7,u), F(6,5,9,u), F(6,5,11,u) and F(6,3,9,u) are exhibited with long dashed, short dashed, fine solid and thick solid lines respectively (b) The form factors F(6,3,7,u), F(4,5,7,u), F(4,5,9,u) and F(4,3,7,u) correspond to long dashed, short dashed, fine solid and thick solid curves respectively. (c) The Helm type form factors, relevant for the target Ta, for , and for short dashed, long dashed and continuous curves respectively. These are relevant for the target Ta.
Figure 2.
The shell model form factors (a) for F(6,5,7,u), F(6,5,9,u), F(6,5,11,u) and F(6,3,9,u) are exhibited with long dashed, short dashed, fine solid and thick solid lines respectively (b) The form factors F(6,3,7,u), F(4,5,7,u), F(4,5,9,u) and F(4,3,7,u) correspond to long dashed, short dashed, fine solid and thick solid curves respectively. (c) The Helm type form factors, relevant for the target Ta, for , and for short dashed, long dashed and continuous curves respectively. These are relevant for the target Ta.
Figure 3.
The momentum dependence of the expression for the target Ta is exhibited. The case corresponds to a solid line, while and correspond to to a short dashed and a long dashed line respectively (a) obtained with shell model form factors and (b) using the Helm type form factors. It is clear that the last form factors lead to a much larger contribution.
Figure 3.
The momentum dependence of the expression for the target Ta is exhibited. The case corresponds to a solid line, while and correspond to to a short dashed and a long dashed line respectively (a) obtained with shell model form factors and (b) using the Helm type form factors. It is clear that the last form factors lead to a much larger contribution.
Figure 4.
(a)The function
in units of keV
in the case of the target
Ta. (b) The differential rate relative to the total nucleon rate (for
),
, in units of keV
for the Ta target. The long dashed curve in the drawing has been reduced by a factor of 5, so the related rate must be multiplied by 5. The labeling of the curves is the same as in
Figure 1. The Helm type form factor has been employed.
Figure 4.
(a)The function
in units of keV
in the case of the target
Ta. (b) The differential rate relative to the total nucleon rate (for
),
, in units of keV
for the Ta target. The long dashed curve in the drawing has been reduced by a factor of 5, so the related rate must be multiplied by 5. The labeling of the curves is the same as in
Figure 1. The Helm type form factor has been employed.
Figure 5.
(a)The total WIMP-Nucleus cross section in units of cm in the case of the Ta target as a function of the WIMP mass. (b)The total WIMP-Nucleus event rate in units of y in the case of the Ta target as a function of the WIMP mass in units of the nuclear mass . In evaluating the rate we assumed nuclei of Ta in the target.
Figure 5.
(a)The total WIMP-Nucleus cross section in units of cm in the case of the Ta target as a function of the WIMP mass. (b)The total WIMP-Nucleus event rate in units of y in the case of the Ta target as a function of the WIMP mass in units of the nuclear mass . In evaluating the rate we assumed nuclei of Ta in the target.
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