Determining the WIMP mass from a single direct detection experiment, a more detailed study

Understand

The energy spectrum of nuclear recoils in Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) direct detection experiments depends on the underlying WIMP mass.

• We study how the accuracy with which the WIMP mass could be determined by a single direct detection experiment depends on the detector configuration and the WIMP properties.
• We investigate the effects of varying the underlying WIMP mass and cross-section, the detector target nucleus, exposure, energy threshold and maximum energy, the local circular speed and the background event rate and spectrum.
• The number of events observed is directly proportional to both the exposure and the cross-section, therefore these quantities have the greatest bearing on the accuracy of the WIMP mass determination.