Dark Matter Results from 100 Live Days of XENON100 Data

TLDR

The study reports results from a direct dark matter search using the XENON100 detector at the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. XENON100 is a two‑phase liquid xenon time‑projection chamber with a 62 kg target, employing 3‑D vertex reconstruction to define a 48 kg ultra‑low‑background fiducial volume. After 100.9 live days, no dark matter signal was observed; three events were seen against an expected 1.8 ± 0.6 background, yielding a 90 % C.L.

Abstract

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows to select only the innermost 48 kg as ultra-low background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in a pre-defined signal region with an expected background of 1.8 +/- 0.6 events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic WIMP-nucleon scattering cross-sections above 7.0x10^-45 cm^2 for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c^2 at 90% confidence level.