Implications on Inelastic Dark Matter from 100 Live Days of XENON100 Data

TL;DR

This paper reports on the analysis of 100 live days of XENON100 data, setting new limits on inelastic dark matter interactions and challenging the inelastic dark matter explanation for DAMA/LIBRA results.

Contribution

First direct experimental limits on inelastic dark matter from XENON100 data, excluding the DAMA/LIBRA modulation explanation at 90% confidence.

Findings

No significant excess events observed.

Set new upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross section.

Ruled out inelastic dark matter as cause of DAMA/LIBRA signal.

Abstract

The XENON100 experiment has recently completed a dark matter run with 100.9 live-days of data, taken from January to June 2010. Events in a 48kg fiducial volume in the energy range between 8.4 and 44.6 keVnr have been analyzed. A total of three events have been found in the predefined signal region, compatible with the background prediction of (1.8 \pm 0.6) events. Based on this analysis we present limits on the WIMP-nucleon cross section for inelastic dark matter. With the present data we are able to rule out the explanation for the observed DAMA/LIBRA modulation as being due to inelastic dark matter scattering off iodine at a 90% confidence level.