An experiment to search for dark matter interactions using sodium iodide detectors

Abstract

Observations of galaxies and primordial radiation suggest that the Universe is made mostly of non-luminous dark matter. Several types of new fundamental particles have been proposed as candidates for dark matter such as weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) but no definitive signal has been seen despite concerted efforts by many collaborations. One exception is the much-debated claim by the DAMA collaboration of a statistically significant annual modulation in the event rate of their experiment with a period and phase consistent with that expected from WIMP dark matter. Several groups have been working to develop experiments with the aim of reproducing DAMA's results using the same target medium. Here we report results from the initial operation of the COSINE-100 experiment. COSINE-100 uses sodium iodide as the target medium-the same medium as DAMA-and is designed to carry out a model-independent test of DAMA's claim. Initial data based on the first 59.5 days indicate that there is no excess of events over the expected background, confirming that DAMA's annual modulation signal is in severe tension with results from other experiments under the assumption of dark matter having spin independent interactions and the Standard Halo Model. COSINE-100 is now taking data to study the presence of dark matter-induced annual modulation in the event rate of the sodium iodide detectors.

26 pages, 9 figures

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• First results on dark matter annual modulation from ANAIS-112 experiment
• Characterization of SABRE crystal NaI-33 with direct underground counting
• Probing DAMA/LIBRA in the full parameter space of WIMP effective models of inelastic scattering
• PEXO: a global modeling framework for nanosecond timing, microsecond astrometry, and $\mu$m/s radial velocities
• Neutron background measurement for rare event search experiments in the YangYang Underground Laboratory
• COSINE-100 and DAMA/LIBRA-phase2 in WIMP effective models
• Performance of an ultra-pure NaI(Tl) detector produced by an indigenously-developed purification method and crystal growth for the COSINE-200 experiment
• A facility for mass production of ultra-pure NaI powder for the COSINE-200 experiment
• A search for solar axion induced signals with COSINE-100
• Strongly interacting dark matter and the DAMA signal
• The role of small scale experiments in the direct detection of dark matter
• Chiral kinetic theory in the presence of dark photon