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Double Chooz collaboration(Abrahao, T. et al), & Novella, P. (2017). Cosmic-muon characterization and annual modulation measurement with Double Chooz detectors. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 017–20pp.
Abstract: A study on cosmic muons has been performed for the two identical near and far neutrino detectors of the Double Chooz experiment, placed at similar to 120 and similar to 300 m. w.e. underground respectively, including the corresponding simulations using the MUSIC simulation package. This characterization has allowed us to measure the muon flux reaching both detectors to be (3.64 +/- 0.04) x 10(-4) cm(-2) s(-1) for the near detector and (7.00 +/- 0.05) x 10(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) for the far one. The seasonal modulation of the signal has also been studied observing a positive correlation with the atmospheric temperature, leading to an effective temperature coefficient of alpha(T) = 0.212 +/- 0.024 and 0.355 +/- 0.019 for the near and far detectors respectively. These measurements, in good agreement with expectations based on theoretical models, represent one of the first measurements of this coefficient in shallow depth installations.
Keywords: cosmic ray experiments; neutrino detectors
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de Putter, R., Wagner, C., Mena, O., Verde, L., & Percival, W. J. (2012). Thinking outside the box: effects of modes larger than the survey on matter power spectrum covariance. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 019–31pp.
Abstract: Accurate power spectrum (or correlation function) covariance matrices are a crucial requirement for cosmological parameter estimation from large scale structure surveys. In order to minimize reliance on computationally expensive mock catalogs, it is important to have a solid analytic understanding of the different components that make up a covariance matrix. Considering the matter power spectrum covariance matrix, it has recently been found that there is a potentially dominant effect on mildly non-linear scales due to power in modes of size equal to and larger than the survey volume. This beat coupling effect has been derived analytically in perturbation theory and while it has been tested with simulations, some questions remain unanswered. Moreover, there is an additional effect of these large modes, which has so far not been included in analytic studies, namely the effect on the estimated average density which enters the power spectrum estimate. In this article, we work out analytic, perturbation theory based expressions including both the beat coupling and this local average effect and we show that while, when isolated, beat coupling indeed causes large excess covariance in agreement with the literature, in a realistic scenario this is compensated almost entirely by the local average effect, leaving only similar to 10% of the excess. We test our analytic expressions by comparison to a suite of large N-body simulations, using both full simulation boxes and subboxes thereof to study cases without beat coupling, with beat coupling and with both beat coupling and the local average effect. For the variances, we find excellent agreement with the analytic expressions for k < 0.2 hMpc(-1) at z = 0.5, while the correlation coefficients agree to beyond k = 0.4 hMpc(-1). As expected, the range of agreement increases towards higher redshift and decreases slightly towards z = 0. We finish by including the large-mode effects in a full covariance matrix description for arbitrary survey geometry and confirming its validity using simulations. This may be useful as a stepping stone towards building an actual galaxy (or other tracer's) power spectrum covariance matrix.
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Bhattacharya, A., Esmaili, A., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Sarcevic, I. (2017). Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 07(7), 027–36pp.
Abstract: After the first four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has observed 54 high-energy starting events (HESE) with deposited energies between 20TeV and 2PeV. The background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos is expected to be of about 20 events, all below 100TeV, thus pointing towards the astrophysical origin of about 8 events per year in that data set. However, their precise origin remains unknown. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of this event sample (considering simultaneously the energy, hemisphere and topology of the events) by assuming two contributions for the signal events: an isotropic power-law flux and a flux from decaying heavy dark matter. We fit the mass and lifetime of the dark matter and the normalization and spectral index of an isotropic power-law flux, for various decay channels of dark matter. We find that a significant contribution from dark matter decay is always slightly favored, either to explain the excess below 100TeV, as in the case of decays to quarks or, as in the case of neutrino channels, to explain the three multi-PeV events. Also, we consider the possibility to interpret all the data by dark matter decays only, considering various combinations of two decay channels. We show that the decaying dark matter scenario provides a better fit to HESE data than the isotropic power-law flux.
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Bernal, N., Forero-Romero, J. E., Garani, R., & Palomares-Ruiz, S. (2014). Systematic uncertainties from halo asphericity in dark matter searches. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 09(9), 004–30pp.
Abstract: Although commonly assumed to be spherical, dark matter halos are predicted to be non-spherical by N-body simulations and their asphericity has a potential impact on the systematic uncertainties in dark matter searches. The evaluation of these uncertainties is the main aim of this work, where we study the impact of aspherical dark matter density distributions in Milky-Way-like halos on direct and indirect searches. Using data from the large N-body cosmological simulation Bolshoi, we perform a statistical analysis and quantify the systematic uncertainties on the determination of local dark matter density and the so-called J factors for dark matter annihilations and decays from the galactic center. We find that, due to our ignorance about the extent of the non-sphericity of the Milky Way dark matter halo, systematic uncertainties can be as large as 35%, within the 95% most probable region, for a spherically averaged value for the local density of 0.3-0.4 GeV/cm(3). Similarly, systematic uncertainties on the J factors evaluated around the galactic center can be as large as 10% and 15%, within the 95% most probable region, for dark matter annihilations and decays, respectively.
Keywords: dark matter theory; dark matter simulations
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Blanco, C., Escudero, M., Hooper, D., & Witte, S. J. (2019). Z ' mediated WIMPs: dead, dying, or soon to be detected? J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 11(11), 024–48pp.
Abstract: Although weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) have long been among the most studied and theoretically attractive classes of candidates for the dark matter of our universe, the lack of their detection in direct detection and collider experiments has begun to dampen enthusiasm for this paradigm. In this study, we set out to appraise the status of the WIMP paradigm, focusing on the case of dark matter candidates that interact with the Standard Model through a new gauge boson. After considering a wide range of Z' mediated dark matter models, we quantitatively evaluate the fraction of the parameter space that has been excluded by existing experiments, and that is projected to fall within the reach of future direct detection experiments. Despite the existence of stringent constraints, we find that a sizable fraction of this parameter space remains viable. More specifically, if the dark matter is a Majorana fermion, we find that an order one fraction of the parameter space is in many cases untested by current experiments. Future direct detection experiments with sensitivity near the irreducible neutrino floor will be able to test a significant fraction of the currently viable parameter space, providing considerable motivation for the next generation of direct detection experiments.
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