Improved EDELWEISS-III sensitivity for low-mass WIMPs using a profile likelihood approach

L. Hehn; E. Armengaud; Q. Arnaud; C. Augier; A. Benoît; L. Bergé; J. Billard; J. Blümer; T. de Boissière; A. Broniatowski; P. Camus; A. Cazes; M. Chapellier; F. Charlieux; M. De Jésus; L. Dumoulin; K. Eitel; N. Foerster; J. Gascon; A. Giuliani; M. Gros; G. Heuermann; Y. Jin; A. Juillard; C. Kéfélian; M. Kleifges; V. Kozlov; H. Kraus; V. A. Kudryavtsev; H. Le-Sueur; S. Marnieros; X.-F. Navick; C. Nones; E. Olivieri; P. Pari; B. Paul; M.-C. Piro; D. Poda; E. Queguiner; S. Rozov; V. Sanglard; B. Schmidt; S. Scorza; B. Siebenborn; D. Tcherniakhovski; L. Vagneron; M. Weber; E. Yakushev

doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4388-y

2024 Impact factor 4.8

Particles and Fields

Open Access

Eur. Phys. J. C (2016) 76: 548
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4388-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Improved EDELWEISS-III sensitivity for low-mass WIMPs using a profile likelihood approach

L. Hehn¹^*, E. Armengaud², Q. Arnaud³^,13, C. Augier³, A. Benoît⁴, L. Bergé⁵, J. Billard³, J. Blümer¹^,6, T. de Boissière², A. Broniatowski⁵^,6, P. Camus⁴, A. Cazes³, M. Chapellier⁵, F. Charlieux³, M. De Jésus³, L. Dumoulin⁵, K. Eitel¹, N. Foerster⁶, J. Gascon³, A. Giuliani⁵, M. Gros², G. Heuermann⁶, Y. Jin⁷, A. Juillard³, C. Kéfélian³^,6, M. Kleifges⁸, V. Kozlov¹, H. Kraus⁹, V. A. Kudryavtsev¹⁰, H. Le-Sueur⁵, S. Marnieros⁵, X.-F. Navick², C. Nones², E. Olivieri⁵, P. Pari¹¹, B. Paul², M.-C. Piro⁵^,14, D. Poda⁵, E. Queguiner³, S. Rozov¹², V. Sanglard³, B. Schmidt¹^,15, S. Scorza⁶, B. Siebenborn¹, D. Tcherniakhovski⁸, L. Vagneron³, M. Weber⁸ and E. Yakushev¹²

¹ Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 3640, 76021, Karlsruhe, Germany
² CEA Saclay, DSM/IRFU, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
³ Univ Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, Institut de Physique nucléaire de Lyon, 4 rue Enrico Fermi, F-69622, Lyon, France
⁴ Institut Néel, CNRS/UJF, 25 rue des Martyrs, BP 166, 38042, Grenoble, France
⁵ CSNSM, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405, Orsay, France
⁶ Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, Gaedestr. 1, 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany
⁷ Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures, CNRS, Route de Nozay, 91460, Marcoussis, France
⁸ Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Institut für Prozessdatenverarbeitung und Elektronik, Postfach 3640, 76021, Karlsruhe, Germany
⁹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK
¹¹ CEA Saclay, DSM/IRAMIS, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
¹² JINR, Laboratory of Nuclear Problems, Joliot-Curie 6, 141980, Dubna, Moscow Region, Russian Federation
¹³ Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada
¹⁴ Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
¹⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

^* e-mail: lukas.hehn@kit.edu

Received: 13 July 2016
Accepted: 19 September 2016
Published online: 6 October 2016

Abstract

We report on a dark matter search for a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) in the mass range $m_{\chi } \in [4, 30]\,\mathrm{GeV/}c^2$ with the EDELWEISS-III experiment. A 2D profile likelihood analysis is performed on data from eight selected detectors with the lowest energy thresholds leading to a combined fiducial exposure of 496 kg-days. External backgrounds from $\gamma$ - and $\beta$ -radiation, recoils from $^{206}\mathrm{Pb}$ and neutrons as well as detector intrinsic backgrounds were modelled from data outside the region of interest and constrained in the analysis. The basic data selection and most of the background models are the same as those used in a previously published analysis based on boosted decision trees (BDT) [1]. For the likelihood approach applied in the analysis presented here, a larger signal efficiency and a subtraction of the expected background lead to a higher sensitivity, especially for the lowest WIMP masses probed. No statistically significant signal was found and upper limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section can be set with a hypothesis test based on the profile likelihood test statistics. The 90 % C.L. exclusion limit set for WIMPs with $m_\chi = 4\,\mathrm{GeV/}c^2$ is $1.6 \times 10^{-39}\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ , which is an improvement of a factor of seven with respect to the BDT-based analysis. For WIMP masses above $15\,\mathrm{GeV/}c^2$ the exclusion limits found with both analyses are in good agreement.