WIMPed Out

At TAUP 2011, Maxim Pospelov gives an interesting talk on alternatives to WIMPs for the DAMA, CoGeNT and CRESST data. Much of the talk focuses on a novel neutrino sector, resulting in a keV alternative to apparent WIMP recoils. Note that although recent CRESST results fall into the ballpark DAMA and CoGeNT WIMP mass range, a particle is a particle, and a particle cannot have a different profile at different experiments. One need not take the current form of the neutrino analysis seriously, but the general idea is certainly intriguing. The plot shows a forced fit to the CoGeNT data. Given the failure to date of stringy pseudo-predictions, we will probably see more of these ideas in the near future.