First Probe of Sub-GeV Dark Matter beyond the Cosmological Expectation with the COHERENT CsI Detector at the SNS

D Akimov; P An; C Awe; P S Barbeau; B Becker; V Belov; I Bernardi; M A Blackston; C Bock; A Bolozdynya; J Browning; B Cabrera-Palmer; D Chernyak; E Conley; J Daughhetee; J Detwiler; K Ding; M R Durand; Y Efremenko; S R Elliott; L Fabris; M Febbraro; A Gallo Rosso; A Galindo-Uribarri; M P Green; M R Heath; S Hedges; D Hoang; M Hughes; T Johnson; A Khromov; A Konovalov; E Kozlova; A Kumpan; L Li; J M Link; J Liu; K Mann; D M Markoff; J Mastroberti; P E Mueller; J Newby; D S Parno; S I Penttila; D Pershey; R Rapp; J Raybern; O Razuvaeva; D Reyna; G C Rich; J Ross; D Rudik; J Runge; D J Salvat; A M Salyapongse; J Sander; K Scholberg; A Shakirov; G Simakov; G Sinev; W M Snow; V Sosnovtsev; B Suh; R Tayloe; K Tellez-Giron-Flores; I Tolstukhin; E Ujah; J Vanderwerp; R L Varner; C J Virtue; G Visser; T Wongjirad; Y-R Yen; J Yoo; C-H Yu; J Zettlemoyer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.051803

First Probe of Sub-GeV Dark Matter beyond the Cosmological Expectation with the COHERENT CsI Detector at the SNS

Phys Rev Lett. 2023 Feb 3;130(5):051803. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.051803.

Authors

D Akimov¹, P An^{2

3}, C Awe^{2

3}, P S Barbeau^{2

3}, B Becker⁴, V Belov^{1

5}, I Bernardi⁴, M A Blackston⁶, C Bock⁷, A Bolozdynya¹, J Browning⁸, B Cabrera-Palmer⁹, D Chernyak⁷, E Conley², J Daughhetee⁶, J Detwiler¹⁰, K Ding⁷, M R Durand¹⁰, Y Efremenko^{4

6}, S R Elliott¹¹, L Fabris⁶, M Febbraro⁶, A Gallo Rosso¹², A Galindo-Uribarri^{4

6}, M P Green^{3

6

8}, M R Heath⁶, S Hedges^{2

3

13}, D Hoang⁴, M Hughes¹⁴, T Johnson^{2

3}, A Khromov¹, A Konovalov^{1

5}, E Kozlova^{1

5}, A Kumpan¹, L Li^{2

3}, J M Link¹⁵, J Liu⁷, K Mann⁸, D M Markoff^{3

16}, J Mastroberti¹⁴, P E Mueller⁶, J Newby⁶, D S Parno¹⁷, S I Penttila⁶, D Pershey², R Rapp¹⁷, J Raybern², O Razuvaeva^{1

5}, D Reyna⁹, G C Rich³, J Ross^{3

16}, D Rudik¹, J Runge^{2

3}, D J Salvat¹⁴, A M Salyapongse¹⁷, J Sander⁷, K Scholberg², A Shakirov¹, G Simakov^{1

5}, G Sinev², W M Snow¹⁴, V Sosnovtsev¹, B Suh¹⁴, R Tayloe¹⁴, K Tellez-Giron-Flores¹⁵, I Tolstukhin¹⁴, E Ujah^{3

14}, J Vanderwerp¹⁴, R L Varner⁶, C J Virtue¹², G Visser¹⁴, T Wongjirad¹⁸, Y-R Yen¹⁷, J Yoo¹⁹, C-H Yu⁶, J Zettlemoyer¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute), Moscow 115409, Russian Federation.
² Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
³ Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA.
⁵ National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute," Moscow 123182, Russian Federation.
⁶ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069, USA.
⁸ Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA.
⁹ Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
¹¹ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
¹² Department of Physics, Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario P3E 2C6, Canada.
¹³ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California, 94550, USA.
¹⁴ Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
¹⁵ Center for Neutrino Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Mathematics and Physics, North Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina 27707, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.

PMID: 36800477
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.051803

Abstract

The COHERENT Collaboration searched for scalar dark matter particles produced at the Spallation Neutron Source with masses between 1 and 220 MeV/c^{2} using a CsI[Na] scintillation detector sensitive to nuclear recoils above 9 keV_{nr}. No evidence for dark matter is found and we thus place limits on allowed parameter space. With this low-threshold detector, we are sensitive to coherent elastic scattering between dark matter and nuclei. The cross section for this process is orders of magnitude higher than for other processes historically used for accelerator-based direct-detection searches so that our small, 14.6 kg detector significantly improves on past constraints. At peak sensitivity, we reject the flux consistent with the cosmologically observed dark-matter concentration for all coupling constants α_{D}<0.64, assuming a scalar dark-matter particle. We also calculate the sensitivity of future COHERENT detectors to dark-matter signals which will ambitiously test multiple dark-matter spin scenarios.