https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-3877-3
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Results on light dark matter particles with a low-threshold CRESST-II detector
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805, Munich, Germany
2
Departamento de Fisica, Universidade de Coimbra, P3004 516, Coimbra, Portugal
3
INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010, Assergi, Italy
4
Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
5
Walther-Meißner-Institut für Tieftemperaturforschung, 85748, Garching, Germany
6
Institut für Hochenergiephysik der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1050, Wien, Austria
7
Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology, 1020, Wien, Austria
8
Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
9
Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK
* e-mail: florian.reindl@mpp.mpg.de
Received:
7
September
2015
Accepted:
1
January
2016
Published online:
20
January
2016
The CRESST-II experiment uses cryogenic detectors to search for nuclear recoil events induced by the elastic scattering of dark matter particles in CaWO
crystals. Given the low energy threshold of our detectors in combination with light target nuclei, low mass dark matter particles can be probed with high sensitivity. In this letter we present the results from data of a single detector module corresponding to 52 kg live days. A blind analysis is carried out. With an energy threshold for nuclear recoils of 307 eV we substantially enhance the sensitivity for light dark matter. Thereby, we extend the reach of direct dark matter experiments to the sub- GeV/
region and demonstrate that the energy threshold is the key parameter in the search for low mass dark matter particles.
© The Author(s), 2016
