Macroscopic dark matter (macros) refers to a class of dark matter candidates that scatter elastically off of ordinary matter with a large geometric cross-section. A wide range of macro masses and cross-sections remain unprobed. We show that over a wide region within the unexplored parameter space, collisions of a macro with a human body would result in serious injury or death. We use the absence of such unexplained impacts with a well-monitored subset of the human population to exclude a region bounded by cm$^{2}$ and kg. Our results open a new window on dark matter: the human body as a dark matter detector.
{ "license": [ { "url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/", "license": "CC-BY-3.0" } ], "copyright": [ { "holder": "The Author(s)", "statement": "The Author(s)", "year": "2020" } ], "control_number": "52886", "_oai": { "updated": "2020-03-25T10:00:28Z", "id": "oai:repo.scoap3.org:52886", "sets": [ "PLB" ] }, "authors": [ { "surname": "Sidhu", "given_names": "Jagjit Singh", "affiliations": [ { "country": "USA", "value": "Physics Department, CERCA, ISO, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA" } ], "full_name": "Sidhu, Jagjit Singh", "orcid": "0000-0002-1956-1305", "email": "jxs1325@case.edu" }, { "affiliations": [ { "country": "USA", "value": "Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA" } ], "surname": "Scherrer", "email": "robert.scherrer@vanderbilt.edu", "full_name": "Scherrer, Robert", "given_names": "Robert" }, { "affiliations": [ { "country": "USA", "value": "Physics Department, CERCA, ISO, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA" } ], "surname": "Starkman", "email": "glenn.starkman@case.edu", "full_name": "Starkman, Glenn", "given_names": "Glenn" } ], "_files": [ { "checksum": "md5:274944f0675469403244321091a41937", "filetype": "xml", "bucket": "7a3fbfca-c935-430c-8c28-851f64024e89", "version_id": "4fae2f64-7ec0-4867-9132-6fdb77298b42", "key": "10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135300.xml", "size": 71531 }, { "checksum": "md5:bd67687cabe8b09dc591527edfdeb7c4", "filetype": "pdf", "bucket": "7a3fbfca-c935-430c-8c28-851f64024e89", "version_id": "c8174d72-4f32-467c-b5fc-ed3fa3d0a8a4", "key": "10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135300.pdf", "size": 495339 }, { "checksum": "md5:4d8a560c971231b7f6bc47db1b5514f7", "filetype": "pdf/a", "bucket": "7a3fbfca-c935-430c-8c28-851f64024e89", "version_id": "f049319c-226a-48b7-a882-41a8bb104c27", "key": "10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135300_a.pdf", "size": 847334 } ], "record_creation_date": "2020-02-21T16:30:12.427160", "titles": [ { "source": "Elsevier", "title": "Death and serious injury from dark matter" } ], "collections": [ { "primary": "Physics Letters B" } ], "dois": [ { "value": "10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135300" } ], "publication_info": [ { "journal_volume": "803 C", "journal_title": "Physics Letters B", "material": "article", "artid": "135300", "year": 2020 } ], "$schema": "http://repo.scoap3.org/schemas/hep.json", "abstracts": [ { "source": "Elsevier", "value": "Macroscopic dark matter (macros) refers to a class of dark matter candidates that scatter elastically off of ordinary matter with a large geometric cross-section. A wide range of macro masses <math><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub></math> and cross-sections <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u03c3</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub></math> remain unprobed. We show that over a wide region within the unexplored parameter space, collisions of a macro with a human body would result in serious injury or death. We use the absence of such unexplained impacts with a well-monitored subset of the human population to exclude a region bounded by <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u03c3</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub><mo>></mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>\u2212</mo><mn>8</mn></mrow></msup><mo>\u2212</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>\u2212</mo><mn>7</mn></mrow></msup></math> cm$^{2}$ and <math><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub><mo><</mo><mn>50</mn></math> kg. Our results open a new window on dark matter: the human body as a dark matter detector." } ], "imprints": [ { "date": "2020-03-25", "publisher": "Elsevier" } ], "acquisition_source": { "date": "2020-03-25T10:36:04.321514", "source": "Elsevier", "method": "Elsevier", "submission_number": "32e3df846e7b11eabc4402163e01809a" } }