An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the First LUX Dark Matter Search
Abstract
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search was a 250-kg active mass dual-phase time projection chamber that operated by detecting light and ionization signals from particles incident on a xenon target. In December 2015, LUX reported a minimum 90% upper C.L. of 6e-46 cm^2 on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross section based on a 1.4e4 kg*day exposure in its first science run. Tension between experiments and the absence of a definitive positive detection suggest it would be prudent to search for WIMPs outside the standard spin-independent/spin-dependent paradigm. Recent theoretical work has identified a complete basis of 14 independent effective field theory (EFT) operators to describe WIMP-nucleon interactions. In addition to spin-independent and spin-dependent nuclear responses, these operators can produce novel responses such as angular-momentum-dependent and spin-orbit couplings. Here we report on a search for all 14 of these EFT couplings with data from LUX's first science run. Limits are placed on each coupling as a function of WIMP mass.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2003.11141,
title = {An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the First LUX Dark Matter Search},
author = {D. S. Akerib and S. Alsum and H. M. Araújo and X. Bai and J. Balajthy and A. Baxter and E. P. Bernard and A. Bernstein and T. P. Biesiadzinski and E. M. Boulton and B. Boxer and P. Brás and S. Burdin and D. Byram and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and C. Chan and J. E. Cutter and L. de Viveiros and E. Druszkiewicz and A. Fan and S. Fiorucci and R. J. Gaitskell and C. Ghag and M. G. D. Gilchriese and C. Gwilliam and C. R. Hall and S. J. Haselschwardt and S. A. Hertel and D. P. Hogan and M. Horn and D. Q. Huang and C. M. Ignarra and R. G. Jacobsen and O. Jahangir and W. Ji and K. Kamdin and K. Kazkaz and D. Khaitan and E. V. Korolkova and S. Kravitz and V. A. Kudryavtsev and N. A. Larsen and E. Leason and B. G. Lenardo and K. T. Lesko and J. Liao and J. Lin and A. Lindote and M. I. Lopes and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and N. Marangou and D. N. McKinsey and D. -M. Mei and M. Moongweluwan and J. A. Morad and A. St. J. Murphy and A. Naylor and C. Nehrkorn and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and A. Nilima and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and K. J. Palladino and E. K. Pease and Q. Riffard and G. R. C. Rischbieter and C. Rhyne and P. Rossiter and S. Shaw and T. A. Shutt and C. Silva and M. Solmaz and V. N. Solovov and P. Sorensen and T. J. Sumner and M. Szydagis and D. J. Taylor and R. Taylor and W. C. Taylor and B. P. Tennyson and P. A. Terman and D. R. Tiedt and W. H. To and L. Tvrznikova and U. Utku and S. Uvarov and A. Vacheret and V. Velan and R. C. Webb and J. T. White and T. J. Whitis and M. S. Witherell and F. L. H. Wolfs and D. Woodward and J. Xu and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.11141},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
11 pages, 6 figures