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The search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by directdetection faces an encroaching background due to coherent neutrino-nucleusscattering. For a given WIMP mass the cross section at which neutrinosconstitute a dominant background is dependent on the uncertainty on the flux ofeach neutrino source from either the Sun, supernovae or atmospheric cosmic raycollisions. However there are also considerable uncertainties with regard tothe astrophysical ingredients to the predicted WIMP signal. Uncertainties inthe velocity of the Sun with respect to the Milky Way dark matter halo, thelocal density of WIMPs, and the shape of the local WIMP speed distribution allhave an effect on the expected event rate in direct detection experiments andhence will change the region of the WIMP parameter space for which neutrinosare a significant background. In this work we extend the WIMP+neutrino analysisto account for the uncertainty in the astrophysics dependence of the WIMPsignal. We show the effect of uncertainties on projected discovery limits withan emphasis on low WIMP masses (less than 10 GeV) when Solar neutrinobackgrounds are most important. We find that accounting for astrophysicaluncertainties changes the shape of the neutrino floor as a function of WIMPmass but also causes it to appear at cross sections up to an order of magnitudelarger, extremely close to existing experimental limits - indicating thatneutrino backgrounds will become an issue sooner than previously thought. Wealso explore how neutrinos hinder the estimation of WIMP parameters and howastrophysical uncertainties impact the discrimination of WIMPs and neutrinoswith the use of their respective time dependencies.

Dark matter astrophysical uncertainties and the neutrino floor