Death and serious injury from dark matter

Jagjit Singh Sidhu (Physics Department, CERCA, ISO, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA) ; Robert Scherrer (Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA) ; Glenn Starkman (Physics Department, CERCA, ISO, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA)

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 MX and cross-sections σX 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 σX>108107 cm$^{2}$ and MX<50 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
    }
  ], 
  "$schema": "http://repo.scoap3.org/schemas/hep.json", 
  "abstracts": [
    {
      "source": "Elsevier", 
      "value": "Macroscopic dark matter (macros) refers to a class of dark matter candidates that scatter elastically off of ordinary matter with a large geometric cross-section. A wide range of macro masses <math><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub></math> and cross-sections <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u03c3</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub></math> remain unprobed. We show that over a wide region within the unexplored parameter space, collisions of a macro with a human body would result in serious injury or death. We use the absence of such unexplained impacts with a well-monitored subset of the human population to exclude a region bounded by <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u03c3</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub><mo>&gt;</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>\u2212</mo><mn>8</mn></mrow></msup><mo>\u2212</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>\u2212</mo><mn>7</mn></mrow></msup></math> cm$^{2}$ and <math><msub><mrow><mi>M</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>X</mi></mrow></msub><mo>&lt;</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"
  }
}
Published on:
25 March 2020
Publisher:
Elsevier
Published in:
Physics Letters B , Volume 803 C (2020)

Article ID: 135300
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2020.135300
Copyrights:
The Author(s)
Licence:
CC-BY-3.0

Fulltext files: