Extending light WIMP searches to single scintillation photons in LUX
Abstract
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 wavelengths. We demonstrate this analysis using an electron recoil calibration dataset and place new constraints on the spin-independent scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) down to 2.5 GeV/c WIMP mass using the 2013 LUX dataset. This new technique is promising to enhance light WIMP and astrophysical neutrino searches in next-generation liquid xenon experiments.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.06272,
title = {Extending light WIMP searches to single scintillation photons in LUX},
author = {D. S. Akerib and S. Alsum and H. M. Araújo and X. Bai and A. J. Bailey and J. Balajthy and A. Baxter and P. Beltrame 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 S. B. Cahn and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and C. Chan and A. A. Chiller and C. Chiller and A. Currie and J. E. Cutter and L. de Viveiros 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 K. R. Gibson and M. G. D. Gilchriese and E. Grace and C. Gwilliam 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 O. Jahangir and W. Ji and K. Kamdin and K. Kazka and D. Khaitan and R. Knoche and E. V. Korolkova and S. Kravitz and V. A. Kudryavtsev and N. A. Larsen and E. Leason and C. Lee and B. G. Lenardo and K. T. Lesko and C. Levy and J. Liao and J. Lin and A. Lindote and M. I. Lopes and B. López-Paredes and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and N. Marangou 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 A. Naylor and C. Nehrkorn and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and A. Nilima and K. O'Sullivan and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and K. J. Palladino and E. K. Pease and L. Reichhart and Q. Riffard and G. R. C. Rischbieter and P. Rossiter and S. Shaw and T. A. Shutt and C. Silva and M. Solmaz and V. N. Solovov and P. Sorensen and S. Stephenson 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 M. Tripathi and L. Tvrznikova and U. Utku and S. Uvarov and A. Vacheret 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 D. Woodward and J. Xu and K. Yazdani and S. K. Young and C. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.06272},
year = {2020}
}