Solar neutrino physics at dark matter direct detection experiments

Abstract

As the sensitivity of direct detection experiments improves, they will soon be subject to a new, irreducible background from the coherent elastic scattering of solar neutrinos with nuclei. The presence of new physics can modify this scattering rate, and signals of neutrino scattering may appear in direct detection experiments sooner than expected. In this thesis, we explore the effects of several simplified models of new physics on neutrino scattering at direct detection experiments. We introduce the neutrino contour, a projection of the modified coherent neutrino scattering rate on a dark matter parameter space. This contour can be used to quickly identify whether a direct detection experiment could set competitive constraints on a given model, or conversely, whether the model could produce a large enough neutrino scattering rate to hinder searches for dark matter at that experiment. We discuss the subtleties that arise while computing constraints from the results of one experiment, CDMSlite, in particular the challenges of including electron scattering in the analysis. Finally, we calculate the sensitivity of several future direct detection experiments to one model, the . We find that the upcoming LUX-ZEPLIN experiment will be able to test solutions to two ongoing problems in fundamental physics: the muon g-2 anomaly and the tension.