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Published March 2001 | Published
Journal Article Open

Velocity distributions and annual-modulation signatures of weakly-interacting massive particles

Abstract

An annual modulation in the event rate of the NaI detector of the DAMA collaboration has been used to infer the existence of particle dark matter in the Galactic halo. Bounds on the WIMP mass and WIMP-nucleon cross section have been derived. These analyses have assumed that the local dark-matter velocity distribution is either isotropic or has some bulk rotation. Here we consider the effects of possible structure in the WIMP velocity distribution on the annual-modulation amplitude. We show that if we allow for a locally anisotropic velocity dispersion tensor, the interpretation of direct detection experiments could be altered significantly. We also show that uncertainties in the velocity distribution function that arise from uncertainties in the radial density profile are less important if the velocity dispersion is assumed to be isotropic.

Additional Information

© SISSA 2001. Received 20 June 2000, accepted for publication 29 March 2001. Published 9 April 2001. We would like to thank George Lake for discussions. This work was supported in part by NSF AST-0096023, NASA NAG5-8506, and DoE DE-FG03-92-ER40701.

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August 21, 2023
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