Direct Dark Matter Search with XMASS-I

TL;DR

The XMASS-I experiment used liquid xenon to search for dark matter via annual modulation, setting new upper limits on WIMP interactions and excluding the DAMA/LIBRA region.

Contribution

This work presents the first annual modulation search with XMASS-I's liquid xenon detector, providing competitive upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross sections.

Findings

No modulation signal was observed in the data.

Set an upper limit of 4.3×10⁻⁴¹ cm² at 8 GeV/c² WIMP mass.

Excluded the DAMA/LIBRA allowed region for dark matter detection.

Abstract

XMASS-I uses single phase liquid xenon technology for aiming at the direct detection of dark matter. The detector observes only scintillation light by 2 inch 642 PMTs which are placed in sphere shape around an active volume. With its large mass target and high photoelectron yield, we conducted a search for dark matter by annual modulation with 832 kg $\times$ 359.2 days exposure of data. We find no modulation signal in the data so that we set an upper limit 4.3$\times10^{-41} \rm{cm}^{2} $ at WIMP mass of 8 GeV/$c^{2}$ which excluded an interpreted DAMA/LIBRA allowed region.