The unbearable lightness of being: CDMS versus XENON

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes XENON10 data and finds that light dark matter particles around 8.6 GeV remain consistent with experimental results from CDMS and XENON experiments, despite previous claims of exclusion.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the XENON10 data does not exclude light dark matter particles, challenging prior interpretations and exploring interaction modifications to reconcile experimental results.

Findings

XENON10 data does not rule out light dark matter around 8.6 GeV.

Tension exists between CDMS and XENON100 limits.

Light dark matter remains compatible with multiple experiments.

Abstract

The CDMS-II collaboration has reported 3 events in a Si detector, which are consistent with being nuclear recoils due to scattering of Galactic dark matter particles with a mass of about 8.6 GeV and a cross-section on neutrons of about 2 x 10^-41 cm^2. While a previous result from the XENON10 experiment has supposedly ruled out such particles as dark matter, we find by reanalysing the XENON10 data that this is not the case. Some tension remains however with the upper limit placed by the XENON100 experiment, independently of astrophysical uncertainties concerning the Galactic dark matter distribution. We explore possible ways of ameliorating this tension by altering the properties of dark matter interactions. Nevertheless, even with standard couplings, light dark matter is consistent with both CDMS and XENON10/100.