118542623
Consequences of statistical sense determination for WIMP directional detection
We study the consequences of limited recoil sense reconstruction on the number of events required to reject isotropy and detect a WIMP signal using a directional detector. For a constant probability of determining the sense correctly, 3-d readout and zero background, we find that as the probability is decreased from 1.0 to 0.75 the number of events required increases by a factor of a few. As the probability is decreased further the number of events increases sharply, and isotropy can be rejected more easily by discarding the sense information and using axial statistics. This however requires an order of magnitude more events than vectorial data with perfect sense determination. We also consider energy dependent probabilities of correctly measuring the sense. Our main finding is that correctly determining the sense of the abundant, but less anisotropic, low energy recoils is most important.
117989592
Extracting Information about WIMP Properties from Direct Detection Experiments: Astrophysical Uncertainties
WIMP direct detection experiments probe the ultra-local dark matter density and velocity distribution. We review how uncertainties in these quantities affect the accuracy with which the WIMP mass and cross-section can be constrained or determined.
119021467
PRIMORDIAL BLACK HOLES AND EARLY COSMOLOGY
We describe the changes to the standard primordial black hole constraints on density perturbations if there are modifications to the standard cosmology between the time of formation and nucleosynthesis.
119363323
Effect of halo modelling on WIMP exclusion limits
WIMP direct detection experiments are just reaching the sensitivity required to detect galactic dark matter in the form of neutralinos. Data from these experiments are usually analysed under the simplifying assumption that the Milky Way halo is an isothermal sphere with maxwellian velocity distribution. Observations and numerical simulations indicate that galaxy halos are in fact triaxial and anisotropic. Furthermore, in the cold dark matter paradigm galactic halos form via the merger of smaller subhalos, and at least some residual substructure survives. We examine the effect of halo modelling on WIMP exclusion limits, taking into account the detector response. Triaxial and anisotropic halo models, with parameters motivated by observations and numerical simulations, lead to significant changes which are different for different experiments, while if the local WIMP distribution is dominated by small scale clumps then the exclusion limits are changed dramatically.
8787684
Determining the WIMP mass from a single direct detection experiment
The energy spectrum of nuclear recoils in Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) direct detection experiments depends on the underlying WIMP mass (strongly for light WIMPs, weakly for heavy WIMPs). We discuss how the accuracy with which the WIMP mass could be determined by a single direct detection experiment depends on the detector configuration and the WIMP properties. In particular we examine the effects of varying the underlying WIMP mass, the detector target nucleus, exposure, energy threshold and maximum energy, the local velocity distribution and the background event rate and spectrum.
55672557
WIMP physics with ensembles of direct-detection experiments
if dierent classes of experiments see consistent signals and infer the same WIMP properties. In this work, we review the ideas, methods, and status of direct-detection searches. We focus in particular on extracting WIMP physics (WIMP interactions and phase-space distribution) from direct-detection data in the early discovery days when multiple experiments see of order dozens to hundreds of events. To demonstrate the essential complementarity of dierent direct-detection experiments in this context, we create mock data intended to represent the data from the near-future Generation 2 experiments. We consider both conventional supersymmetry-inspired benchmark points (with spin-independent and -dependent elastic cross sections just below current limits), as well as benchmark points for other classes of models (inelastic and eective-operator paradigms). We also investigate the eect on parameter estimation of loosening or dropping the assumptions about the local WIMP phase-space distribution. We arrive at two main conclusions. Firstly, teasing out WIMP physics with experiments depends critically on having a wide set of detector target materials, spanning a large range of target nuclear masses and spin-dependent sensitivity. It is also highly desirable to obtain data from low-threshold experiments. Secondly, a general reconstruction of the local WIMP velocity distribution, which will only be achieved if there are multiple experiments using dierent target materials, is critical to obtaining a robust and unbiased estimate of the WIMP mass.
118503531
Imprints of neutron stars in the interstellar medium
We have carried out an HI survey towards X-ray central compact objects (CCOs) inside supernova remnants (SNRs) which shows that many of them are placed within local HI minima. The nature of these minima is not clear, but the most likely explanation is that the CCOs have evacuated the neighboring gas. This survey also allowed us to detect a weak, diffuse radio nebula inside the SNR Vela Jr, probably created by the winds of its associated CCO.
119385124
Magnetic fields in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey
The Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS) is a 1.4 GHz radio polarization and H I survey in a large part of the inner Galactic plane at a resolution of about an arcmin. Depolarization and Faraday rotation of polarized radiation from diffuse Galactic synchrotron emission, pulsars, and extragalactic sources can be used to infer information about the strength and structure of the Galactic magnetic field. Here, we discuss early results of the polarization data from the SGPS. We show from statistical analysis of rotation measures of polarized extragalactic sources that fluctuations in the magnetoionized medium of the spiral arms are probably mainly caused by H II regions, while the rotation measure fluctuations in the interarm regions may be connected to the interstellar turbulent cascade. Furthermore, the variations of rotation measure with Galactic longitude enable modeling of the large-scale component of the Galactic magnetic field, including determination of the number and location of magnetic field reversals. Finally, the SGPS is an excellent way to study subparsec-scale structure in the ionized interstellar medium by way of depolarization studies in H II regions. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
7776074
H2O Maser Observations of Candidate Post-AGB Stars and Discovery of Three High-Velocity Water Sources
We present the results of 22 GHz H2O maser observations of a sample of 85 post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) candidate stars, selected on the basis of their OH 1612 MHz maser and far-infrared properties. All sources were observed with the Tidbinbilla 70 m radio telescope, and 21 detections were made; 86 GHz SiO Mopra observations of a subset of the sample are also presented. Of the 21 H2O detections, 15 are from sources that are likely to be massive AGB stars and most of these show typical, regular H2O maser profiles. In contrast, nearly all the detections of more evolved stars exhibited high-velocity H2O maser emission. Of the five sources seen, v223 (W43A, IRAS 18450-0148) is a well-known "water-fountain" source that belongs to a small group of post-AGB stars with highly collimated, high-velocity H2O maser emission. A second source in our sample, v270 (IRAS 18596+0315), is also known to have high-velocity emission. We report the discovery of similar emission from a further three sources, d46 (IRAS 15445-5449), d62 (IRAS 15544-5332), and b292 (IRAS 18043-2116). The source d46 is an evolved post-AGB star with highly unusual maser properties. The H2O maser emission from d62 is probably associated with a massive star. The source b292 is a young post-AGB star that is highly likely to be a water-fountain source, with masers detected over a velocity range of 210 km s-1.
36335120
A stellar wind bubble coincident with the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937: Are magnetars formed from massive progenitors?
We present 21 cm H I observations from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey of the field around the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1048.1-5937, a source whose X-ray properties imply that it is a highly magnetized neutron star (a magnetar). These data reveal an expanding hydrogen shell, GSH 288.3-0.5-28, centered on 1E 1048.1-5937, with a diameter of 35 × 23 pc (for a distance of 2.7 kpc) and an expansion velocity of ≈7.5 km s-1. We interpret GSH 288.3-0.5-28 as a wind bubble blown by a 30-40 M☉ star, but no such central star can be readily identified. We suggest that GSH 288.3-0.5-28 is the wind bubble blown by the massive progenitor of 1E 1048.1-5937 and consequently propose that magnetars originate from more massive progenitors than do radio pulsars. This may be evidence that the initial spin period of a neutron star is correlated with the mass of its progenitor and implies that the magnetar birthrate is only a small fraction of that for radio pulsars.
15965860
“Missing Link” Clouds in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey
We present an automated routine to search for H I self-absorption features within the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS). The data were taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Parkes Radio Telescope and encompass 3°×105° of sky in the Galactic plane. We apply our routine to this entire region and derive spin temperatures and column densities for 70 of the larger HISA complexes, finding spin temperatures ranging from 6 to 41 K with H I number densities of a few cm -3. These "missing link" clouds fill in the spin temperature and density gaps between dense molecular clouds and diffuse atomic clouds. We compare the H I emission with 12CO emission and find that ∼60% of detected H I self-absorption is correlated in space and in velocity with a molecular counterpart. This is potentially due to a molecular/atomic gas transition. We also compare H I self-absorption with Galactic spiral arms and discuss the possibility of using it as a spiral arm tracer. © 2005. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.