English

Calibration, event reconstruction, data analysis and limits calculation for the LUX dark matter experiment

Instrumentation and Detectors 2018-06-06 v1

Abstract

The LUX experiment has performed searches for dark matter particles scattering elastically on xenon nuclei, leading to stringent upper limits on the nuclear scattering cross sections for dark matter. Here, for results derived from 1.4×104  kgdays{1.4}\times 10^{4}\;\mathrm{kg\,days} of target exposure in 2013, details of the calibration, event-reconstruction, modeling, and statistical tests that underlie the results are presented. Detector performance is characterized, including measured efficiencies, stability of response, position resolution, and discrimination between electron- and nuclear-recoil populations. Models are developed for the drift field, optical properties, background populations, the electron- and nuclear-recoil responses, and the absolute rate of low-energy background events. Innovations in the analysis include in situ measurement of the photomultipliers' response to xenon scintillation photons, verification of fiducial mass with a low-energy internal calibration source, and new empirical models for low-energy signal yield based on large-sample, in situ calibrations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.05696,
  title  = {Calibration, event reconstruction, data analysis and limits calculation for the LUX dark matter experiment},
  author = {D. S. Akerib and S. Alsum and H. M. Araújo and X. Bai and A. J. Bailey and J. Balajthy and P. Beltrame and E. P. Bernard and A. Bernstein and T. P. Biesiadzinski and E. M. Boulton and P. Brás and D. Byram and S. B. Cahn and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and C. Chan and A. Currie and J. E. Cutter and T. J. R. Davison and A. Dobi and J. E. Y. Dobson and E. Druszkiewicz and B. N. Edwards and C. H. Faham and S. R. Fallon and A. Fan and S. Fiorucci and R. J. Gaitskell and V. M. Gehman and J. Genovesi and C. Ghag and M. G. D. Gilchriese and C. R. Hall and M. Hanhardt 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 W. Ji and K. Kamdin and K. Kazkaz and D. Khaitan and R. Knoche and N. A. Larsen and C. Lee and B. G. Lenardo and K. T. Lesko and A. Lindote and M. I. Lopes and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and M. F. Marzioni and D. N. McKinsey and D. M. Mei and J. Mock and M. Moongweluwan and J. A. Morad and A. St. J. Murphy and C. Nehrkorn and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and K. O'Sullivan and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and K. J. Palladino and E. K. Pease and L. Reichhart and C. Rhyne 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 W. C. Taylor and B. P. Tennyson and P. A. Terman and D. R. Tiedt and W. H. To and M. Tripathi and L. Tvrznikova and S. Uvarov and V. Velan and J. R. Verbus and R. C. Webb and J. T. White and T. J. Whitis and M. S. Witherell and F. L. H. Wolfs and J. Xu and K. Yazdani and S. K. Young and C. Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.05696},
  year   = {2018}
}
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