Search for inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering with the PICO-60 CF$_{3}$I and C$_{3}$F$_{8}$ bubble chambers

E. Adams; B. Ali; I. J. Arnquist; D. Baxter; E. Behnke; M. Bressler; B. Broerman; C. J. Chen; K. Clark; J. I. Collar; P. S. Cooper; C. Cripe; M. Crisler; C. E. Dahl; M. Das; S. Fallows; J. Farine; R. Filgas; A. García Viltres; G. Giroux; O. Harris; T. Hillier; E. W. Hoppe; C. M. Jackson; M. Jin; C. B. Krauss; V. Kumar; M. Laurin; I. Lawson; A. Leblanc; H. Leng; I. Levine; C. Licciardi; W. H. Lippincott; P. Mitra; V. Monette; C. Moore; R. Neilson; A. J. Noble; H. Nozard; S. Pal; M. -C. Piro; A. Plante; S. Priya; C. Rethmeier; A. E. Robinson; J. Savoie; A. Sonnenschein; N. Starinski; I. Štekl; D. Tiwari; E. Vázquez-Jáuregui; U. Wichoski; V. Zacek; J. Zhang

arXiv · 2301.08993

Search for inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering with the PICO-60 CF$_{3}$I and C$_{3}$F$_{8}$ bubble chambers

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Abstract

PICO bubble chambers have exceptional sensitivity to inelastic dark matter-nucleus interactions due to a combination of their extended nuclear recoil energy detection window from a few keV to $O$(100 keV) or more and the use of iodine as a heavy target. Inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering is interesting for studying the properties of dark matter, where many theoretical scenarios have been developed. This study reports the results of a search for dark matter inelastic scattering with the PICO-60 bubble chambers. The analysis reported here comprises physics runs from PICO-60 bubble chambers using CF$_{3}$I and C$_{3}$F$_{8}$. The CF$_{3}$I run consisted of 36.8 kg of CF$_{3}$I reaching an exposure of 3415 kg-day operating at thermodynamic thresholds between 7 and 20 keV. The C$_{3}$F$_{8}$ runs consisted of 52 kg of C$_{3}$F$_{8}$ reaching exposures of 1404 kg-day and 1167 kg-day running at thermodynamic thresholds of 2.45 keV and 3.29 keV, respectively. The analysis disfavors various scenarios, in a wide region of parameter space, that provide a feasible explanation of the signal observed by DAMA, assuming an inelastic interaction, considering that the PICO CF$_{3}$I bubble chamber used iodine as the target material.

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E. Adams, B. Ali, I. J. Arnquist, D. Baxter, E. Behnke, M. Bressler, B. Broerman, C. J. Chen, K. Clark, J. I. Collar, P. S. Cooper, C. Cripe, M. Crisler, C. E. Dahl, M. Das, S. Fallows, J. Farine, R. Filgas, A. García Viltres, G. Giroux, O. Harris, T. Hillier, E. W. Hoppe, C. M. Jackson, M. Jin, C. B. Krauss, V. Kumar, M. Laurin, I. Lawson, A. Leblanc, H. Leng, I. Levine, C. Licciardi, W. H. Lippincott, P. Mitra, V. Monette, C. Moore, R. Neilson, A. J. Noble, H. Nozard, S. Pal, M. -C. Piro, A. Plante, S. Priya, C. Rethmeier, A. E. Robinson, J. Savoie, A. Sonnenschein, N. Starinski, I. Štekl, D. Tiwari, E. Vázquez-Jáuregui, U. Wichoski, V. Zacek, J. Zhang. 2023-01-21. Search for inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering with the PICO-60 CF$_{3}$I and C$_{3}$F$_{8}$ bubble chambers. https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.08993

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