Probing spin-dependent dark matter interactions with $$^6$$Li

Abstract

CRESST is one of the most prominent direct detection experiments for dark matter particles with sub-GeV/c$$^2$$ 2 mass. One of the advantages of the CRESST experiment is the possibility to include a large variety of nuclides in the target material used to probe dark matter interactions. In this work, we discuss in particular the interactions of dark matter particles with protons and neutrons of $$^{6}$$ 6 Li. This is now possible thanks to new calculations on nuclear matrix elements of this specific isotope of Li. To show the potential of using this particular nuclide for probing dark matter interactions, we used the data collected previously by a CRESST prototype based on LiAlO$$_2$$ 2 and operated in an above ground test-facility at Max-Planck-Institut für Physik in Munich, Germany. In particular, the inclusion of $$^{6}$$ 6 Li in the limit calculation drastically improves the result obtained for spin-dependent interactions with neutrons in the whole mass range. The improvement is significant, greater than two order of magnitude for dark matter masses below 1 GeV/c$$^2$$ 2 , compared to the limit previously published with the same data.

First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment

“…The SD proton and neutron modes use the mean nuclear structure functions from [64]. Also shown are limits from other experiments [40,41,84,89,90,[96][97][98].…”

Improving ANAIS-112 sensitivity to DAMA/LIBRA signal with machine learning techniques

“…Only the DAMA/LIBRA experiment, which uses NaI(Tl) crystal detectors at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, has provided a long-standing positive result [8][9][10][11][12][13][14], the observation of a highly statistically significant annual modulation in the low energy detection rate (below 6 keV ee ), 2 which is compatible with that expected for DM particles distributed following the standard halo model [15,16]. The DAMA/LIBRA result has not been reproduced by any other experiment and, for years, the most plausible DM scenarios have been strongly constrained by the results of other experiments using different target materials and detection techniques [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. A model-independent test of the DAMA/LIBRA result requires an experiment using the same target material, a similar (or better) background and threshold energy, large exposure (product of mass and measurement time) and stability, in order to analyze the annual modulation effect.…”

Rare event searches with cryogenic detectors

“…The solid red lineshows the limits, including the scintillation light information, using one module and the dashed red line shows the limits with the other detector module, where no light information is available. The previous above-ground results from CRESST, using the same detector material, are also shown with a solid black line[16]. This result has a higher detection energy threshold and lower exposure.…”

“…To measure spin-dependent dark matter-nucleus interactions for protons and neutrons, a nucleus with an odd number of protons and neutrons and a non-zero nuclear spin is needed. In this case, scattering at 6 Li is used to measure spin-dependent dark matter scattering [16]. Considering spin-dependent dark matter particle interactions with nuclei, proton-only and neutron-only interactions can be distinguished and measured down to a dark matter mass of 0.16 GeV c −2 , see figure 6.…”