Speaker
Description
Nuclei that are unstable with respect to double beta decay are investigated in this work for a novel Dark Matter (DM) direct detection approach. In particular, the diagram responsible for the neutrinoless double beta decay can be considered for the possible detection technique of a Majorana DM fermion in-elastically scattering on a (double beta) unstable nucleus, stimulating its decay. The exothermic nature of the stimulated double beta decay would allow the direct detection of light DM fermions, a class of DM candidates that are difficult or impossible to investigate with the traditional elastic scattering techniques. The phenomenology of this DM detection approach and the expected signal distribution for different DM masses will be shown for a simple interaction model. The comparison with the existing experimental data for the case of 136Xe nucleus and the upper limits on the nucleus scattering cross sections will be presented, considering the example of the (116.7 kg x yr) exposure collected by the EXO-200 experiment. The proposed approach could be very effective for the investigation of MeV/sub-GeV fermionic DM using the existing or planned neutrinoless double beta decay experiments.
| Submitted on behalf of a Collaboration? | No |
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