Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 299
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-4878-6

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Dark-photon search using data from CRESST-II Phase 2

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, 80805, Munich, Germany
² INFN, Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, 67010, Assergi, Italy
³ Physik-Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, 85747, Garching, Germany
⁴ Institut für Hochenergiephysik der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1050, Vienna, Austria
⁵ Atominstitut, Vienna University of Technology, 1020, Vienna, Austria
⁶ Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UK
⁸ Departamento de Fisica, Universidade de Coimbra, 3004 516, Coimbra, Portugal
⁹ Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
¹⁰ Walther-Meißner-Institut für Tieftemperaturforschung, 85748, Garching, Germany
¹¹ GSSI-Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100, L’Aquila, Italy
¹² INFN-Sezione di Roma, 00185, Rome, Italy

^* e-mail: achim.guetlein@oeaw.ac.at

Received: 22 December 2016
Accepted: 29 April 2017
Published online: 10 May 2017

Abstract

Identifying the nature and origin of dark matter is one of the major challenges for modern astro and particle physics. Direct dark-matter searches aim at an observation of dark-matter particles interacting within detectors. The focus of several such searches is on interactions with nuclei as provided e.g. by weakly interacting massive particles. However, there is a variety of dark-matter candidates favoring interactions with electrons rather than with nuclei. One example are dark photons, i.e., long-lived vector particles with a kinetic mixing to standard-model photons. In this work we present constraints on this kinetic mixing based on data from CRESST-II Phase 2 corresponding to an exposure before cuts of 52 kg-days. These constraints improve the existing ones for dark-photon masses between 0.3 and 0.7 keV/c.