Terrestrial WIMP/Axion astronomy

Abstract

Predicting signals in direct dark matter (DM) detection experiments requires an understanding of the astrophysical structure of the local halo. Any uncertainty in this understanding will feed directly into all experimental results. However our terrestrial experiments are in a position to study this same astrophysical dependence, and in fact represent our only probe of the local halo on sub-milliparsec scales. This is best achieved in the case of WIMP dark matter if directionally sensitive experiments are feasible, but requires novel parameterizations of the velocity distribution to make model independent claims. For axions the prospects are much greater, haloscopes would be able to make better measurements of the local DM distribution than astrometric probes.