ANAIS-112 status: two years results on annual modulation

TL;DR

ANAIS-112 is a NaI scintillator experiment aiming to independently verify the DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation signal, with two years of data showing preliminary results and projections for five years of operation.

Contribution

This paper provides the first two-year data analysis of the ANAIS-112 experiment, directly comparing to DAMA/LIBRA using the same NaI(Tl) target material.

Findings

Preliminary two-year modulation analysis presented.

Projected sensitivity for five years of data collection.

Comparison with DAMA/LIBRA results in progress.

Abstract

ANAIS (Annual modulation with NaI Scintillators) is a dark matter direct detection experiment located at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC), in Spain. The goal is to confirm or refute in a model independent way the DAMA/LIBRA positive result: an annual modulation in the low-energy detection rate compatible with the expected signal induced by dark matter particles in the galactic halo. This signal, observed for about 20 years, is in strong tension with the negative results of other very sensitive experiments, but a direct comparison using the same target material, NaI(Tl), was still lacking. ANAIS-112, consisting of 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl) scintillators, is taking data at the LSC since August 2017. Here we present the preliminary annual modulation analysis corresponding to two years of data (exposure of 220.69 kg x y) and the ANAIS-112 projected sensitivity for the scheduled 5 y of operation.