New Dark Matter Detectors using DNA or RNA for Nanometer Tracking

Abstract

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) may constitute most of the matter in the Universe. The ability to detect the directionality of recoil nuclei will considerably facilitate detection of WIMPs. In this paper we propose a novel type of dark matter detector: detectors made of DNA or RNA could provide nanometer resolution for tracking, an energy threshold of 0.5 keV, and can operate at room temperature. When a WIMP from the Galactic Halo elastically scatters off of a nucleus in the detector, the recoiling nucleus then traverses hundreds of strings of single stranded nucleic acids (ssNA) with known base sequences and severs ssNA strands along its trajectory. The location of the break can be identified by amplifying and identifying the segments of cut ssNA using techniques well known to biologists. Thus the path of the recoiling nucleus can be tracked to nanometer accuracy. In one such detector concept, the transducers are nanometer-thick Au-foils of 1m x 1m, and the direction of recoiling nuclei is measured by "NA Tracking Chamber" consisting of ordered array of ssNA strands. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and ssNA sequencing are used to read-out the detector. The proposed detector is smaller and cheaper than other alternatives: 1 kg of gold and 0.1 to 4 kg of ssNA (depending on length and strand density), packed into 0.01m$^3$, can be used to study 10 GeV WIMPs. A variety of other detector target elements could be used in this detector to optimize for different WIMP masses and to identify WIMP properties. By leveraging advances in molecular biology, we aim to achieve about 1,000-fold better spatial resolution than in conventional WIMP detectors at reasonable cost.