Suitability of superheated droplet detectors for dark matter search

Abstract We have measured the sensitivity of superheated droplet detectors in different radiation environments and we discuss the suitability of this detection technique for the search of weakly interacting cold dark matter particles. In particular, we show that our new proposed detector based on superheated carbo-fluorates can be operated at ambient pressure and room temperature in a mode where it is almost exclusively sensitive to the nuclear recoils following neutralino interaction, which allows a powerful background discrimination. The potential of the detection technique is shown by deriving a limit on the spin-dependent neutralino cross-section, making use of the very favourable neutralino– 19 F interaction and background suppression.