An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the First LUX Dark Matter Search

Abstract

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search was a 250-kg active mass dual-phase time projection chamber that operated by detecting light and ionization signals from particles incident on a xenon target. In December 2015, LUX reported a minimum 90% upper C.L. of 6e-46 cm^2 on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross section based on a 1.4e4 kg*day exposure in its first science run. Tension between experiments and the absence of a definitive positive detection suggest it would be prudent to search for WIMPs outside the standard spin-independent/spin-dependent paradigm. Recent theoretical work has identified a complete basis of 14 independent effective field theory (EFT) operators to describe WIMP-nucleon interactions. In addition to spin-independent and spin-dependent nuclear responses, these operators can produce novel responses such as angular-momentum-dependent and spin-orbit couplings. Here we report on a search for all 14 of these EFT couplings with data from LUX's first science run. Limits are placed on each coupling as a function of WIMP mass.

11 pages, 6 figures

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• Dark Matter from Monogem
• Constraints on Effective Field Theory Couplings Using 311.2 days of LUX Data
• The Design, Implementation, and Performance of the LZ Calibration Systems
• Calibrating the scintillation and ionization responses of xenon recoils for high-energy dark matter searches
• Isospin-violating dark matter at liquid noble detectors: new constraints, future projections, and an exploration of target complementarity
• Directional Detectability of Dark Matter With Single Phonon Excitations: Target Comparison