Search for inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering with the PICO-60 CF3I and C3F8 bubble chambers

Le résumé fourni par la source

PICO bubble chambers have exceptional sensitivity to inelastic dark matter-nucleus interactions due to a combination of their extended nuclear-recoil energy detection window from a few keV to $O(100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{keV})$ or more and the use of iodine as a heavy target. Inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering is interesting for studying the properties of dark matter, where many theoretical scenarios have been developed. This study reports the results of a search for dark matter inelastic scattering with the PICO-60 bubble chambers. The analysis reported here comprises physics runs from PICO-60 bubble chambers using ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}\mathrm{I}$ and ${\mathrm{C}}_{3}{\mathrm{F}}_{8}$. The ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}\mathrm{I}$ run consisted of 36.8 kg of ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}\mathrm{I}$ reaching an exposure of $3415\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kg}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{day}$ operating at thermodynamic thresholds between 7 and 20 keV. The ${\mathrm{C}}_{3}{\mathrm{F}}_{8}$ runs consisted of 52 kg of ${\mathrm{C}}_{3}{\mathrm{F}}_{8}$ reaching exposures of 1404 and $1167\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kg}\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{day}$ running at thermodynamic thresholds of 2.45 and 3.29 keV, respectively. The analysis disfavors various scenarios, in a wide region of parameter space, that provide a feasible explanation of the signal observed by the DAMA experiment, assuming an inelastic interaction, considering that the PICO ${\mathrm{CF}}_{3}\mathrm{I}$ bubble chamber used iodine as the target material.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.