https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09655-y
Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory
Recommended conventions for reporting results from direct dark matter searches
1
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 60637, Chicago, IL, USA
2
School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, 69978, Tel-Aviv, Israel
3
Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
4
INPAC and School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, MOE Key Lab for Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, 200240, Shanghai, China
5
Shanghai Jiao Tong University Sichuan Research Institute, 610213, Chengdu, China
6
Department of Physics, Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden
7
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna and INFN-Bologna, 40126, Bologna, Italy
8
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, WC1E 6BT, London, UK
9
Department of Physics, University of Alberta, T6G 2R3, Edmonton, AB, Canada
10
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
11
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), OX11 0QX, Didcot, UK
12
Department of Physics, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
13
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, 47907, West Lafayette, IN, USA
14
Department of Modern Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, Anhui, China
15
Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, 200240, Shanghai, China
16
Department of Physics, King’s College London, WC2R 2LS, London, UK
17
Columbia Astrophysics Lab, Columbia University, 10027, New York, NY, USA
18
Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, 95616, Davis, CA, USA
19
Department of Physics, Drexel University, 19104, Philadelphia, PA, USA
20
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA
21
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Hamburg, 22761, Hamburg, Germany
22
INFN Cagliari, 09042, Cagliari, Italy
Received:
2
May
2021
Accepted:
15
September
2021
Published online:
15
October
2021
The field of dark matter detection is a highly visible and highly competitive one. In this paper, we propose recommendations for presenting dark matter direct detection results particularly suited for weak-scale dark matter searches, although we believe the spirit of the recommendations can apply more broadly to searches for other dark matter candidates, such as very light dark matter or axions. To translate experimental data into a final published result, direct detection collaborations must make a series of choices in their analysis, ranging from how to model astrophysical parameters to how to make statistical inferences based on observed data. While many collaborations follow a standard set of recommendations in some areas, for example the expected flux of dark matter particles (to a large degree based on a paper from Lewin and Smith in 1995), in other areas, particularly in statistical inference, they have taken different approaches, often from result to result by the same collaboration. We set out a number of recommendations on how to apply the now commonly used Profile Likelihood Ratio method to direct detection data. In addition, updated recommendations for the Standard Halo Model astrophysical parameters and relevant neutrino fluxes are provided. The authors of this note include members of the DAMIC, DarkSide, DARWIN, DEAP, LZ, NEWS-G, PandaX, PICO, SBC, SENSEI, SuperCDMS, and XENON collaborations, and these collaborations provided input to the recommendations laid out here. Wide-spread adoption of these recommendations will make it easier to compare and combine future dark matter results.
© The Author(s) 2021
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