- Main
An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the First LUX Dark Matter Search
- Author(s): Akerib, DS
- Alsum, S
- Araújo, HM
- Bai, X
- Balajthy, J
- Baxter, A
- Bernard, EP
- Bernstein, A
- Biesiadzinski, TP
- Boulton, EM
- Boxer, B
- Brás, P
- Burdin, S
- Byram, D
- Carmona-Benitez, MC
- Chan, C
- Cutter, JE
- Viveiros, L de
- Druszkiewicz, E
- Fan, A
- Fiorucci, S
- Gaitskell, RJ
- Ghag, C
- Gilchriese, MGD
- Gwilliam, C
- Hall, CR
- Haselschwardt, SJ
- Hertel, SA
- Hogan, DP
- Horn, M
- Huang, DQ
- Ignarra, CM
- Jacobsen, RG
- Jahangir, O
- Ji, W
- Kamdin, K
- Kazkaz, K
- Khaitan, D
- Korolkova, EV
- Kravitz, S
- Kudryavtsev, VA
- Larsen, NA
- Leason, E
- Lenardo, BG
- Lesko, KT
- Liao, J
- Lin, J
- Lindote, A
- Lopes, MI
- Manalaysay, A
- Mannino, RL
- Marangou, N
- McKinsey, DN
- Mei, D-M
- Moongweluwan, M
- Morad, JA
- Murphy, A St J
- Naylor, A
- Nehrkorn, C
- Nelson, HN
- Neves, F
- Nilima, A
- Oliver-Mallory, KC
- Palladino, KJ
- Pease, EK
- Riffard, Q
- Rischbieter, GRC
- Rhyne, C
- Rossiter, P
- Shaw, S
- Shutt, TA
- Silva, C
- Solmaz, M
- Solovov, VN
- Sorensen, P
- Sumner, TJ
- Szydagis, M
- Taylor, DJ
- Taylor, R
- Taylor, WC
- Tennyson, BP
- Terman, PA
- Tiedt, DR
- To, WH
- Tvrznikova, L
- Utku, U
- Uvarov, S
- Vacheret, A
- Velan, V
- Webb, RC
- White, JT
- Whitis, TJ
- Witherell, MS
- Wolfs, FLH
- Woodward, D
- Xu, J
- Zhang, C
- et al.
Abstract
The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search was a 250-kg active mass dual-phase time projection chamber that operated by detecting light and ionization signals from particles incident on a xenon target. In December 2015, LUX reported a minimum 90% upper C.L. of 6e-46 cm^2 on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross section based on a 1.4e4 kg*day exposure in its first science run. Tension between experiments and the absence of a definitive positive detection suggest it would be prudent to search for WIMPs outside the standard spin-independent/spin-dependent paradigm. Recent theoretical work has identified a complete basis of 14 independent effective field theory (EFT) operators to describe WIMP-nucleon interactions. In addition to spin-independent and spin-dependent nuclear responses, these operators can produce novel responses such as angular-momentum-dependent and spin-orbit couplings. Here we report on a search for all 14 of these EFT couplings with data from LUX's first science run. Limits are placed on each coupling as a function of WIMP mass.