The LUX direct dark matter search experiment

TL;DR

The LUX experiment conducted its first dark matter search, setting the most stringent limits on WIMP interactions and challenging some recent low-mass WIMP claims.

Contribution

First physics run of LUX provided the most restrictive constraints on spin-independent WIMP scattering to date.

Findings

Data consistent with background-only hypothesis

Strong disagreement with low-mass WIMP signals from other experiments

Set new upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross-section

Abstract

The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment completed its first physics run in 2013, taking 85.3 live-days of WIMP-search data, and produced the world's most stringent constraints on spin-independent scattering of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) to date. A profile-likelihood analysis technique shows the data to be consistent with the background-only hypothesis. The LUX data are in strong disagreement with low-mass WIMP signal interpretations of the results from several recent direct detection experiments.