DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation and Axion Quark Nugget Dark Matter Model. (arXiv:1909.05320v1 [hep-ph])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/hep-ph/1/au:+Zhitnitsky_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ariel Zhitnitsky</a>
The DAMA/LIBRA experiment shows $9.5 sigma$ evidence for an annual
modulation in the $(1-6)~ {rm keV}$ energy range, strongly suggesting that the
observed modulation has the dark matter origin. However, the conventional
interpretation in terms of WIMP-nucleon interaction is excluded by other
experiments. We propose an alternative source of modulation in the form of
neutrons, which have been liberated from surrounding material. Our computations
are based on the so-called Axion Quark Nugget (AQN) dark matter model, which
was originally invented long ago to explain the similarity between the dark and
visible cosmological matter densities, i.e. $ Omega_{rm dark} sim
Omega_{rm visible}$. In our proposal the annual modulation is shown to be
generated in keV energy range which is consistent with DL observation in
$(1-6)~ {rm keV}$ range. This keV energy scale in our proposal is mostly
determined by spectral properties of the neutrinos emitted by the AQN dark
matter particles, while the absence of the modulation with energies above 6 keV
is explained by a sharp cutoff in the neutrino’s energy spectrum at $sim 15$
MeV. This proposal can be directly tested by COSINE-100, ANAIS-112 and
CYGNUS$&$CYGNO experiments. It can be also tested by studying the correlations
between the signals from these experiments and nearby axion search detectors.
The DAMA/LIBRA experiment shows $9.5 sigma$ evidence for an annual
modulation in the $(1-6)~ {rm keV}$ energy range, strongly suggesting that the
observed modulation has the dark matter origin. However, the conventional
interpretation in terms of WIMP-nucleon interaction is excluded by other
experiments. We propose an alternative source of modulation in the form of
neutrons, which have been liberated from surrounding material. Our computations
are based on the so-called Axion Quark Nugget (AQN) dark matter model, which
was originally invented long ago to explain the similarity between the dark and
visible cosmological matter densities, i.e. $ Omega_{rm dark} sim
Omega_{rm visible}$. In our proposal the annual modulation is shown to be
generated in keV energy range which is consistent with DL observation in
$(1-6)~ {rm keV}$ range. This keV energy scale in our proposal is mostly
determined by spectral properties of the neutrinos emitted by the AQN dark
matter particles, while the absence of the modulation with energies above 6 keV
is explained by a sharp cutoff in the neutrino’s energy spectrum at $sim 15$
MeV. This proposal can be directly tested by COSINE-100, ANAIS-112 and
CYGNUS$&$CYGNO experiments. It can be also tested by studying the correlations
between the signals from these experiments and nearby axion search detectors.
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