Composite dark matter and direct-search experiments

Abstract

The results of the direct searches for dark matter are reinterpreted in the framework of composite dark matter, i.e. dark matter particles that form neutral bound states, generically called “dark atoms”. Two different scenarios are presented: milli-interacting dark matter and dark anti-atoms. In both of them, dark matter interacts sufficiently strongly with terrestrial matter to be stopped in it before reaching underground detectors, which are typically located at a depth of 1 km. As they drift towards the center of the Earth because of gravity, these thermal dark atoms are radiatively captured by the atoms of the active medium of underground detectors, which causes the emission of photons that produce the signals through their interactions with the electrons of the medium. This provides a way of reinterpreting the results in terms of electron recoils instead of nuclear recoils. The two models involve milli-charges and are able to reconcile the most contradictory experiments. We determine, for each model, the regions in the parameter space that reproduce the experiments with positive results in consistency with the constraints of the experiments with negative results.