Limits on WIMP dark matter using scintillating CaWO4 cryogenic detectors with active background suppression
Abstract
We present first significant limits on WIMP dark matter by the phonon-light technique, where combined phonon and light signals from a scintillating cryogenic detector are used. Data from early 2004 with two 300 g CRESST-II prototype detector modules are presented, with a net exposure of 20.5 kg days. The modules consist of a CaWO4 scintillating ``target'' crystal and a smaller cryogenic light detector. The combination of phonon and light signals leads to a strong suppression of non-nuclear recoil backgrounds. Using this information to define an acceptance region for nuclear recoils we have 16 events from the two modules, corresponding to a rate for nuclear recoils between 12 and 40 keV of (0.87 +- 0.22) events/(kg day). This is compatible with the rate expected from neutron background, and most of these events lie in the region of the phonon-light plane anticipated for neutron-induced recoils. A particularly strong limit for WIMPs with coherent scattering results from selecting a region of the phonon-light plane corresponding to tungsten recoils, where the best module shows zero events.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0408006,
title = {Limits on WIMP dark matter using scintillating CaWO4 cryogenic detectors with active background suppression},
author = {G. Angloher and C. Bucci and P. Christ and C. Cozzini and F. von Feilitzsch and D. Hauff and S. Henry and Th. Jagemann and J. Jochum and H. Kraus and B. Majorovits and J. Ninkovic and F. Petricca and W. Potzel and F. Pröbst and Y. Ramachers and M. Razeti and W. Rau and W. Seidel and M. Stark and L. Stodolsky and A. J. B. Tolhurst and W. Westphal and H. Wulandari},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0408006},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
24 pages, 10 figures, version v2 includes figures with improved print quality, v3 accepted for publication in astroparticle physics