Results on the Spin-Dependent Scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles on Nucleons from the Run 3 Data of the LUX Experiment
LUX Collaboration, D. S. Akerib, H. M. Araújo, X. Bai, A. J. Bailey, J. Balajthy, P. Beltrame, E. P. Bernard, A. Bernstein, T. P. Biesiadzinski, E. M. Boulton, … 展开作者
LUX Collaboration, D. S. Akerib, H. M. Araújo, X. Bai, A. J. Bailey, J. Balajthy, P. Beltrame, E. P. Bernard, A. Bernstein, T. P. Biesiadzinski, E. M. Boulton, A. Bradley, R. Bramante, S. B. Cahn, M. C. Carmona-Benitez, C. Chan, J. J. Chapman, A. A. Chiller, C. Chiller, A. Currie, J. E. Cutter, T. J. R. Davison, L. de Viveiros, A. Dobi, J. E. Y. Dobson, E. Druszkiewicz, B. N. Edwards, C. H. Faham, S. Fiorucci, R. J. Gaitskell, V. M. Gehman, C. Ghag, K. R. Gibson, M. G. D. Gilchriese, C. R. Hall, M. Hanhardt, S. J. Haselschwardt, S. A. Hertel, D. P. Hogan, M. Horn, D. Q. Huang, C. M. Ignarra, M. Ihm, R. G. Jacobsen, W. Ji, K. Kazkaz, D. Khaitan, R. Knoche, N. A. Larsen, C. Lee, B. G. Lenardo, K. T. Lesko, A. Lindote, M. I. Lopes, D. C. Malling, A. Manalaysay, R. L. Mannino, M. F. Marzioni, D. N. McKinsey, D. M. Mei, J. Mock, M. Moongweluwan, J. A. Morad, A. St. J. Murphy, C. Nehrkorn, H. N. Nelson, F. Neves, K. O'Sullivan, K. C. Oliver-Mallory, R. A. Ott, K. J. Palladino, M. Pangilinan, E. K. Pease, P. Phelps, L. Reichhart, C. Rhyne, S. Shaw, T. A. Shutt, C. Silva, V. N. Solovov, P. Sorensen, S. Stephenson, T. J. Sumner, M. Szydagis, D. J. Taylor, W. Taylor, B. P. Tennyson, P. A. Terman, D. R. Tiedt, W. H. To, M. Tripathi, L. Tvrznikova, S. Uvarov, J. R. Verbus, R. C. Webb, J. T. White, T. J. Whitis, M. S. Witherell, F. L. H. Wolfs, K. Yazdani, S. K. Young, C. Zhang
We present the first experimental constraints on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon elastic cross sections from LUX data acquired in 2013. LUX is a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota), which is designed to observe the recoil signature of galactic WIMPs scattering from xenon nuclei. A profile likelihood ratio analysis of $1.4~\times~10^{4}~\text{kg}\cdot~\text{days}$ of fiducial exposure allows 90% CL upper limits to be set on the WIMP-neutron (WIMP-proton) cross section of $σ_n~=~9.4~\times~10^{-41}~\text{cm}^2$ ($σ_p~=~2.9~\times~10^{-39}~\text{cm}^2$) at 33 GeV/c$^2$. The spin-dependent WIMP-neutron limit is the most sensitive constraint to date.
In the left-right twin Higgs (LRTH) model, the neutral $\hat{S}$ is a candidate for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM). If its mass is lighter than half of the SM-like Higgs boson $h$, the new invisible decay $h \to \hat{S}\hat{S}$ will become open. In this paper, we examine the status of a light dark matter ($\hat{S}$) under current experimental constraints including the latest LHC Higgs data, the XENON100 and LUX limit on the dark matter scattering off the nucleon. The following observations have been obtained: (i) The current ATLAS (CMS) measurements of $R_{γγ}$ can…
We report here on the results from the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) search with the LUX dark matter experiment. LUX, a two-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) with 250 kg of active mass, has been operated from 2012 until 2016. During the operation, we observed no evidence for WIMP elastic scattering events. LUX achieved the most stringent limit on both the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross section (1.1$\times{10}^{-46}$ cm$^2$ for a 50 GeV/c${}^{2}$, 90% C.L.) and on the WIMP-neutron spin-dependent cross section (1.6$\times{10}^{-41}$ cm$^2$ for a 35 GeV/c${}^{2}$, 90% C.…
Direct searches for dark matter (DM) by the LUX and PandaX-II Collaborations employing xenon-based detectors have recently come up with the most stringent limits to date on the spin-independent elastic scattering of DM off nucleons. For Higgs-portal scalar DM models, the new results have precluded any possibility of accommodating low-mass DM as suggested by the DAMA and CDMS II Si experiments utilizing other target materials, even after invoking isospin-violating DM interactions with nucleons. In the simplest model, SM+D, which is the standard model plus a real singlet scalar named darkon acti…
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment completed its first physics run in 2013, taking 85.3 live-days of WIMP-search data, and produced the world's most stringent constraints on spin-independent scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) to date. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows the data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis. The LUX data are in strong disagreement with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments.
In SUSY, a light dark matter is usually accompanied by light scalars to achieve the correct relic density, which opens new decay channels of the SM like Higgs boson. Under current experimental constraints including the latest LHC Higgs data and the dark matter relic density, we examine the status of a light neutralino dark matter in the framework of NMSSM and confront it with the direct detection results of CoGeNT, CDMS-II and LUX. We have the following observations: (i) A dark matter as light as 8 GeV is still allowed and its scattering cross section off the nucleon can be large enough to exp…
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter experiment is operating 1.5 km underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. In 2013, the experiment had a WIMP search exposure of 10,091 kg-days over a period of 85.3 live-days. This first dark matter search placed the world's most stringent limits on WIMP-nucleon interaction cross-sections over a wide range of WIMP masses, and is in tension with signal hints of low-mass WIMPs from DAMA, CoGeNT and CDMS-II Si. LUX will commence a 300 day run in 2014 that will improve the sensitivity by a factor of 5. Low-ener…
Weakly interacting massive particles are a widely well-probed dark matter candidate by the dark matter direct detection experiments. Theoretically, there are a large number of ultraviolet completed models that consist of a weakly interacting massive particle dark matter. The variety of models makes the comparison with the direct detection data complicated and often non-trivial. To overcome this, in the non-relativistic limit, the effective theory was developed in the literature which works very well to significantly reduce the complexity of dark matter-nucleon interactions and to better study …
In the Littlest Higgs model with $T$ parity (LHT), the $T$-odd heavy photon ($A_H$) is weakly interacting and can play the role of dark matter. We investigate the lower limit on the mass of $A_H$ dark matter under the constraints from Higgs data, EWPOs, $R_b$, Planck 2015 dark matter relic abundance, PandaX-II/LUX 2016 direct detections and LHC-8 TeV monojet results. We find that (1) Higgs data, EWPOs and $R_b$ can exclude the mass of $A_H$ up to 99 GeV. To produce the correct dark matter relic abundance, $A_H$ has to co-annihilate with $T$-odd quarks ($q_H$) or leptons ($\ell_H$); (2) the LUX…
Existing xenon dark matter (DM) direct detection experiments can probe the DM-nucleon interaction of DM with a sub-GeV mass through a search for photon emission from the recoiling xenon atom. We show that LUX's constraints on sub-GeV DM, which utilise the scintillation (S1) and ionisation (S2) signals, are approximately three orders of magnitude more stringent than previous xenon constraints in this mass range, derived from the XENON10 and XENON100 S2-only searches. The new LUX constraints provide the most stringent direct detection constraints for DM particles with a mass below 0.5 GeV. In ad…
We present the results of the three-month above-ground commissioning run of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility located in Lead, South Dakota, USA. LUX is a 370 kg liquid xenon detector that will search for cold dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs). The commissioning run, conducted with the detector immersed in a water tank, validated the integration of the various sub-systems in preparation of the underground deployment. Using the data collected, we report excellent light collection properties, achieving …
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) collaboration has designed and constructed a dual-phase xenon detector, in order to conduct a search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles(WIMPs), a leading dark matter candidate. The goal of the LUX detector is to clearly detect (or exclude) WIMPS with a spin independent cross section per nucleon of $2\times 10^{-46}$ cm$^{2}$, equivalent to $\sim$1 event/100 kg/month in the inner 100-kg fiducial volume (FV) of the 370-kg detector. The overall background goals are set to have $<$1 background events characterized as possible WIMPs in the FV in 300 days of r…
We report constraints on spin-independent weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon scattering using a 3.35e4 kg-day exposure of the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment. A dual-phase xenon time projection chamber with 250 kg of active mass is operated at the Sanford Underground Research Facility under Lead, South Dakota (USA). With roughly fourfold improvement in sensitivity for high WIMP masses relative to our previous results, this search yields no evidence of WIMP nuclear recoils. At a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c^2, WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross sections above 2.2e-46 cm^2 are…
We present constraints on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMP)-nucleus scattering from the 2013 data of the Large Underground Xenon dark matter experiment, including $1.4\times10^{4}\;\mathrm{kg\; day}$ of search exposure. This new analysis incorporates several advances: single-photon calibration at the scintillation wavelength, improved event-reconstruction algorithms, a revised background model including events originating on the detector walls in an enlarged fiducial volume, and new calibrations from decays of an injected tritium $β$ source and from kinematically constrained nuclear …
Limits on the cross section for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) scattering off nucleons in the NaI(Tl) detectors at the Yangyang Underground Laboratory are obtained with a 2967.4 kg*day data exposure. Nuclei recoiling are identified by the pulse shape of scintillating photon signals. Data are consistent with no nuclear recoil hypothesis, and 90% confidence level upper limits are set. These limits partially exclude the DAMA/LIBRA region of WIMP-sodium interaction with the same NaI(Tl) target detector. This 90% confidence level upper limit on WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross sect…
LUX, the world's largest dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber, with a fiducial target mass of 118 kg and 10,091 kg-days of exposure thus far, is currently the most sensitive direct dark matter search experiment. The initial null-result limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-section was released in October 2013, with a primary scintillation threshold of 2 phe, roughly 3 keVnr for LUX. The detector has been deployed at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, and is the first experiment to achieve a limit on the WIMP cross-section lower tha…
New constraints are presented on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interaction from the PandaX-II experiment, using a data set corresponding to a total exposure of 3.3$\times10^4$ kg-days. Assuming a standard axial-vector spin-dependent WIMP interaction with $^{129}$Xe and $^{131}$Xe nuclei, the most stringent upper limits on WIMP-neutron cross sections for WIMPs with masses above 10 GeV/c$^{2}$ are set in all dark matter direct detection experiments. The minimum upper limit of $4.1\times 10^{-41}$ cm$^2$ at 90\% confidence level is obtained for a WIMP mass of 40 GeV/c$^{2}$. This represents mor…
We investigate the interactions of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) with nucleons in nuclear medium by taking into account the effect of nuclear dynamics. We derive the nonrelativistic effective operators starting from the relativistic mean-field approximation. Certain interactions receive non-negligible corrections, which may significantly change the sensitivities of WIMP-nucleus scattering cross section to these effective operators.
Only phase space is typically used to obtain final state particle spectra in rare decay searches, which is a crude approximation in the case of three body processes. We will demonstrate how both dynamics and phase space can be approximately accounted for, in processes such as nucleon decays $p \rightarrow e^+ \barν ν$ or $p \rightarrow μ^+ \barν ν$ originating from Grand Unification models, using general effective Fermi theory formalism of electroweak muon decay $μ\rightarrow e^+ \barν ν$. This approach allows for a more precise and only weakly model dependent approximation of final particle s…
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, a dual-phase xenon time-projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (Lead, South Dakota), was cooled and filled in February 2013. We report results of the first WIMP search dataset, taken during the period April to August 2013, presenting the analysis of 85.3 live-days of data with a fiducial volume of 118 kg. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows our data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis, allowing 90% confidence limits to be set on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering with a min…
We present a novel analysis technique for liquid xenon time projection chambers that allows for a lower threshold by relying on events with a prompt scintillation signal consisting of single detected photons. The energy threshold of the LUX dark matter experiment is primarily determined by the smallest scintillation response detectable, which previously required a 2-fold coincidence signal in its photomultiplier arrays, enforced in data analysis. The technique presented here exploits the double photoelectron emission effect observed in some photomultiplier models at vacuum ultraviolet waveleng…
The scattering of dark matter (DM) particles with sub-GeV masses off nuclei is difficult to detect using liquid xenon-based DM search instruments because the energy transfer during nuclear recoils is smaller than the typical detector threshold. However, the tree-level DM-nucleus scattering diagram can be accompanied by simultaneous emission of a Bremsstrahlung photon or a so-called "Migdal" electron. These provide an electron recoil component to the experimental signature at higher energies than the corresponding nuclear recoil. The presence of this signature allows liquid xenon detectors to u…
This work details the development of a three-dimensional (3D) electric field model for the LUX detector. The detector took data during two periods of searching for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) searches. After the first period completed, a time-varying non-uniform negative charge developed in the polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) panels that define the radial boundary of the detector's active volume. This caused electric field variations in the detector in time, depth and azimuth, generating an electrostatic radially-inward force on electrons on their way upward to the liquid surface…
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) is an experiment to detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) based on their interactions with Ge and Si nuclei. We report the results of an analysis of data from the first two runs of CDMS at the Soudan Underground Laboratory in terms of spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interactions on 73Ge and 29Si. These data exclude new regions of spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon interaction parameter space, including regions relevant to spin-dependent interpretations of the annual modulation signal reported by the DAMA/NaI experiment.
We propose a new method to determine at what transverse momenta particle production in high-energy pp collisions is governed by hard parton-parton processes. Using information on the transverse spatial distribution of partons obtained from hard exclusive processes in ep/gamma p scattering, we evaluate the impact parameter distribution of pp collisions with a hard parton-parton process as a function of p_T of the produced parton (jet). We find that the average pp impact parameters in such events depend very weakly on p_T in the range 2 < p_T < few 100 GeV, while they are much smaller than those…
Three-body molecular states composed of $D^{(*)}$ and two nucleons
School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学物理学院）；School of Physics, Southeast University（东南大学物理学院）；Southern Center for Nuclear-Science Theory (SCNT), Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院近代物理研究所南方核科学理论中心）
In our work on the development of a model-independent data analysis method for estimating the spin-independent (SI) scalar coupling of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) on nucleons by using measured recoil energies from direct Dark Matter detection experiments directly, it was assumed that the analyzed data sets are background-free, i.e., all events are WIMP signals. In this article, as a more realistic study, we take into account a fraction of possible residue background events, which pass all discrimination criteria and then mix with other real WIMP-induced events in our data sets…
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a dark matter detector expected to obtain world-leading sensitivity to weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) interacting via nuclear recoils with a ~7-tonne xenon target mass. This manuscript presents sensitivity projections to several low-energy signals of the complementary electron recoil signal type: 1) an effective neutrino magnetic moment and 2) an effective neutrino millicharge, both for pp-chain solar neutrinos, 3) an axion flux generated by the Sun, 4) axion-like particles forming the galactic dark matter, 5) hidden photons, 6) mirror dark matter, and 7) lepto…
We explore simple Higgs-portal models of dark matter (DM) with spin 1/2, 3/2, and 1, respectively, applying to them constraints from the LUX and PandaX-II direct detection experiments and from LHC measurements on the 125-GeV Higgs boson. With only one Higgs doublet, we find that the spin-1/2 DM having a purely scalar effective coupling to the doublet is viable only in a narrow range of mass near the Higgs pole, whereas the vector DM is still allowed if its mass is also close to the Higgs pole or exceeds 1.4 TeV, both in line with earlier analyses. Moreover, the spin-3/2 DM is in a roughly simi…
Using the existing simplified model framework, we build several dark matter models which have suppressed spin-independent scattering cross section. We show that the scattering cross section can vanish due to interference effects with models obtained by simple combinations of simplified models. For weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) masses $\gtrsim$10 GeV, collider limits are usually much weaker than the direct detection limits coming from LUX or XENON100. However, for our model combinations, LHC analyses are more competitive for some parts of the parameter space. The regions with direc…
The LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter search aims to achieve a sensitivity to the WIMP-nucleon spin-independent cross-section down to (1--2)$\times10^{-12}$\,pb at a WIMP mass of 40 GeV/$c^2$. This paper describes the simulations framework that, along with radioactivity measurements, was used to support this projection, and also to provide mock data for validating reconstruction and analysis software. Of particular note are the event generators, which allow us to model the background radiation, and the detector response physics used in the production of raw signals, which can be converted into digitized …
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a next generation dark matter direct detection experiment that will operate 4850 feet underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota, USA. Using a two-phase xenon detector with an active mass of 7~tonnes, LZ will search primarily for low-energy interactions with Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which are hypothesized to make up the dark matter in our galactic halo. In this paper, the projected WIMP sensitivity of LZ is presented based on the latest background estimates and simulations of the detector. For a 1000~live day ru…
Study of few-electron backgrounds in the LUX-ZEPLIN detector
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory（斯坦福直线加速器中心）；Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University（斯坦福大学卡弗里粒子天体物理与宇宙学研究所）；University College London (UCL)（伦敦大学学院）；Brown University（布朗大学）；University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校）；Imperial College London（帝国理工学院）；STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)（英国科学与技术设施委员会卢瑟福阿普尔顿实验室）；University of Maryland（马里兰大学）
The design and performance of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) detector is described as of March 2015 in this Conceptual Design Report. LZ is a second-generation dark-matter detector with the potential for unprecedented sensitivity to weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) of masses from a few GeV/c2 to hundreds of TeV/c2. With total liquid xenon mass of about 10 tonnes, LZ will be the most sensitive experiment for WIMPs in this mass region by the end of the decade. This report describes in detail the design of the LZ technical systems. Expected backgrounds are quantified and the performance of the e…
The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS-II) employs low-temperature Ge and Si detectors to seek Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) via their elastic scattering interactions with nuclei. Simultaneous measurements of both ionization and phonon energy provide discrimination against interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events due to background photons are rejected with >99.99% efficiency. Electromagnetic events very near the detector surface can mimic nuclear recoils because of reduced charge collection, but these surface events are rejected with >96% ef…
