Halo-independence with quantified maximum entropy at DAMA/LIBRA [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1708.00181


Using the DAMA/LIBRA anomaly as an example, we formalise the notion of halo-independence in the context of Bayesian statistics and quantified maximum entropy. We consider an infinite set of possible profiles, weighted by an entropic prior and constrained by a likelihood describing noisy measurements of modulated moments by DAMA/LIBRA. Assuming an isotropic dark matter (DM) profile in the galactic rest frame, we find the most plausible DM profiles and predictions for unmodulated signal rates at DAMA/LIBRA. The entropic prior contains an a priori unknown regularisation factor, $\beta$, that describes the strength of our conviction that the profile is approximately Maxwellian. By varying $\beta$, we smoothly interpolate between a halo-independent and a halo-dependent analysis, thus exploring the impact of prior information about the DM profile.

Read this paper on arXiv…

A. Fowlie
Fri, 20 Oct 17
33/42

Comments: 16 pages, 6 figures. Matches published version. Comments about isotropy added