Exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section from the first run of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search in the Soudan Underground Laboratory Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS-II) employs low-temperature Ge and Si detectors to seek weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) via their elastic-scattering interactions with nuclei. Simultaneous measurements of both ionization and phonon energy provide discrimination against interactions of background particles. For recoil energies above 10 keV, events due to background photons are rejected with >99.99% efficiency. Electromagnetic events very near the detector surface can mimic nuclear recoils because of reduced charge collection, but these surface events are rejected with >96% efficiency by using additional information from the phonon pulse shape. Efficient use of active and passive shielding, combined with the 2090 m.w.e. overburden at the experimental site in the Soudan mine, makes the background from neutrons negligible for this first exposure. All cuts are determined in a blind manner from in situ calibrations with external radioactive sources without any prior knowledge of the event distribution in the signal region. Resulting efficiencies are known to 10%. A single event with a recoil of 64 keV passes all of the cuts and is consistent with the expected misidentification rate of surface electron recoils. Under the assumptions for a standard dark matter halo, these data exclude previously unexplored parameter space for both spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering. The resulting limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic-scattering cross section has a minimum of 410-43cm2 at a WIMP mass of 60GeVc-2. The minimum of the limit for the spin-dependent WIMP-neutron elastic-scattering cross section is 210-37cm2 at a WIMP mass of 50GeVc-2. 2005 The American Physical Society.

published proceedings

  • PHYSICAL REVIEW D

author list (cited authors)

  • Akerib, D. S., Armel-Funkhouser, M. S., Attisha, M. J., Bailey, C. N., Baudis, L., Bauer, D. A., ... Young, B. A.

citation count

  • 100

complete list of authors

  • Akerib, DS||Armel-Funkhouser, MS||Attisha, MJ||Bailey, CN||Baudis, L||Bauer, DA||Brink, PL||Bunker, R||Cabrera, B||Caldwell, DO||Chang, CL||Crisler, MB||Cushman, P||Daal, M||Dixon, R||Dragowsky, MR||Driscoll, DD||Duong, L||Ferril, R||Filippini, J||Gaitskell, RJ||Hennings-Yeomans, R||Holmgren, D||Huber, ME||Kamat, S||Lu, A||Mahapatra, R||Mandic, V||Martinis, JM||Meunier, P||Mirabolfathi, N||Nelson, H||Nelson, R||Ogburn, RW||Perera, TA||Issac, MCP||Ramberg, E||Rau, W||Reisetter, A||Ross, RR||Saab, T||Sadoulet, B||Sander, J||Savage, C||Schnee, RW||Seitz, DN||Serfass, B||Sundqvist, KM||Thompson, JPF||Wang, G||Yellin, S||Young, BA

publication date

  • September 2005