Making sense of the local Galactic escape speed estimates in direct dark matter searches

Understand

Direct detection (DD) of dark matter (DM) candidates in the $\lesssim$10 GeV mass range is very sensitive to the tail of their velocity distribution.

• The important quantity is the maximum WIMP speed in the observer's rest frame, i.e.
• in average the sum of the local Galactic escape speed $v_{\rm esc}$ and of the circular velocity of the Sun $v_c$.
• While the latter has been receiving continuous attention, the former is more difficult to constrain.