First Probe of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Beyond the Cosmological Expectation with the COHERENT CsI Detector at the SNS
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Abstract
The COHERENT collaboration searched for scalar dark matter particles produced at the Spallation Neutron Source with masses between 1 and 220~MeV/c$^2$ using a CsI[Na] scintillation detector sensitive to nuclear recoils above 9~keV$_\text{nr}$. No evidence for dark matter is found and we thus place limits on allowed parameter space. With this low-threshold detector, we are sensitive to coherent elastic scattering between dark matter and nuclei. The cross section for this process is orders of magnitude higher than for other processes historically used for accelerator-based direct-detection searches so that our small, 14.6~kg detector significantly improves on past constraints. At peak sensitivity, we reject the flux consistent with the cosmologically observed dark-matter concentration for all coupling constants $\alpha_D<0.64$, assuming a scalar dark-matter particle. We also calculate the sensitivity of future COHERENT detectors to dark-matter signals which will ambitiously test multiple dark-matter spin scenarios.
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Scholars@Duke
Phillip S. Barbeau
Professor Barbeau’s research interests are predominantly in the fields of neutrino and astroparticle physics. His efforts are focused on (but not limited to) three major areas of research: studying the physics of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering; novel searches for the dark matter in our universe; and searches for zero neutrino double beta decay. The unifying aspect of the work is the common need for new and creative detector development in order to solve some of the “hard” problems in low-background rare-event detection.
Kate Scholberg
Prof. Scholberg's broad research interests include experimental elementary particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. Her main specific interests are in neutrino physics. She has long-term involvement in Super-Kamiokande in Japan and the T2K ("Tokai to Kamioka") high-intensity beam experiment that sends neutrinos 300 km from an accelerator at the J-PARC facility in Japan to Super-K. She is a member of DUNE (Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment), the next-generation U.S.-based international experiment designed to observe neutrinos beamed from Fermilab to a large liquid argon detector at an underground facility in South Dakota. One of Prof. Scholberg's particular interests on DUNE is the detector's sensitivity to the huge bursts of neutrinos from core-collapse supernovae.
Prof. Scholberg serves as spokesperson of COHERENT, a multi-detector experiment with the primary physics goal of measuring CEvNS (Coherent Elastic Neutrino Nucleus Scattering) using the high-quality, high-intensity neutrinos produced by the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. CEvNS is the interaction of a neutrino with an entire nucleus, resulting in a very tiny nuclear recoil. CEvNS was measured for the first time by the collaboration in 2017. COHERENT is currently engaged in multiple measurements of CEvNS on different nuclear targets, as well as a broad program of neutrino interaction measurements and beyond-the-standard-model physics searches.
Prof. Scholberg was a co-founder of SNEWS, the SuperNova Early Warning System, an inter-experiment collaboration of detectors with Galactic supernova sensitivity. Neutrinos from a core collapse will precede the photon signal by hours; therefore coincident observation of a burst in several neutrino detectors will be a robust early warning of a visible supernova. The goals of SNEWS are to provide the astronomical community with a prompt alert of a Galactic core collapse, as well as to optimize global sensitivity to supernova neutrino physics.
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