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Annual modulations from secular variations: relaxing DAMA?

Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2020, Article number: 137 (2020) Cite this article

A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

The DAMA collaboration reported an annually modulated rate with a phase compatible with a Dark Matter induced signal. We point out that a slowly varying rate can bias or even simulate an annual modulation if data are analyzed in terms of residuals computed by subtracting approximately yearly averages starting from a fixed date, rather than a background continuous in time. In the most extreme case, the amplitude and phase of the annual modulation reported by DAMA could be alternatively interpreted as a decennial growth of the rate. This possibility appears mildly disfavoured by a detailed study of the available data, but cannot be safely excluded. In general, a decreasing or increasing rate could partially reduce or enhance a true annual modulation, respectively. The issue could be clarified by looking at the full time-dependence of the DAMA total rate, not explicitly published so far.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits any use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INFN — Sezione di Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, Edificio C, 56127, Pisa, PI, Italy

    Dario Buttazzo & Paolo Panci

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, 56127, Pisa, PI, Italy

    Paolo Panci & Alessandro Strumia

  3. INFN — Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Via G. Acitelli 22, 67100, Assergi AQ, Italy

    Nicola Rossi

  4. INFN — Sezione di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, c/o Edificio G. Marconi, 00185, Roma, Italy

    Nicola Rossi

Authors
  1. Dario Buttazzo
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  2. Paolo Panci
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  3. Nicola Rossi
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  4. Alessandro Strumia
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Correspondence to Paolo Panci.

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ArXiv ePrint: 2002.00459

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Buttazzo, D., Panci, P., Rossi, N. et al. Annual modulations from secular variations: relaxing DAMA?. J. High Energ. Phys. 2020, 137 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2020)137

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2020)137

Keywords

  • Dark Matter and Double Beta Decay (experiments)
  • Dark matter