LUX likelihood and limits on spin-independent and spin-dependent WIMP couplings with LUXCalc

Date

2015

Authors

Savage, C.
Scaffidi, A.
White, M.
Williams, A.

Editors

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Type:

Journal article

Citation

Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, 2015; 92(10):103519-1-103519-16

Statement of Responsibility

Christopher Savage, Andre Scaffidi, Martin White and Anthony G. Williams

Conference Name

Abstract

We present LUXCalc, a new utility for calculating likelihoods and deriving weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP)-nucleon coupling limits from the recent results of the LUX direct search dark matter experiment. After a brief review of WIMP-nucleon scattering, we derive LUX limits on the spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon couplings over a broad range of WIMP masses, under standard assumptions on the relevant astrophysical parameters. We find that, under these and other common assumptions, LUX excludes the entire spin-dependent parameter space consistent with a dark matter interpretation of DAMA’s anomalous signal, the first time a single experiment has been able to do so. We also revisit the case of spin-independent couplings, and demonstrate good agreement between our results and the published LUX results. Finally, we derive constraints on the parameters of an effective dark matter theory in which a spin-1 mediator interacts with a fermionic WIMP and Standard Model fermions via axial-vector couplings. A detailed appendix describes the use of LUXCalc with standard codes to place constraints on generic dark matter theories.

School/Discipline

Dissertation Note

Provenance

Description

Access Status

Rights

© 2015 American Physical Society

License

Call number

Persistent link to this record