Abstract

Hidden photons and axion-like particles are candidates for cold dark matter if they were produced non-thermally in the early universe. We conducted a search for both of these bosons using 800 live-days of data from the XMASS detector with 327 kg of liquid xenon in the fiducial volume. No significant signal was observed, and thus we set constraints on the α′/α parameter related to kinetic mixing of hidden photons and the coupling constant gAe of axion-like particles in the mass range from 40 to 120 keV/c2, resulting in α′/α<6×10−26 and gAe<4×10−13. These limits are the most stringent over this mass range derived from both direct and indirect searches to date.

Highlights

  • The existence of Dark Matter (DM) is inferred from many cosmological and astrophysical observations [1]

  • The expected number of PE on each photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) was obtained from Monte Carlo simulation (MC) simulations for various vertex positions r and xenon absorption lengths labs, and used to calculate a likelihood for each event position

  • BG sources were divided into three groups: radioactive isotopes (RIs) dissolved in the liquid xenon, xenon isotopes activated by neutrons, and RIs in/on the detector components

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Summary

Introduction

Hidden Photons (HPs) and Axion-like Particles (ALPs), which are respectively vector and pseudo-scalar realizations of bosonic super-WIMPs [2], are alternative candidates for DM with expected masses < 1 MeV/c 2. HPs and ALPs are experimentally interesting because both of them are absorbed by materials with an interaction analogous to a photoelectric effect [2], transferring their total energy to electrons Assuming they are cold DM, i.e. they are non-relativistic, the energy they deposit is equivalent to their rest mass. [2] is limited to bosons with keV-scale mass up to roughly 100 keV/c 2 In this mass region, indirect searches give stringent limits of < 10−26 on the α /α parameter of HP, which represents the strength of the kinetic mixing, in the mass range from 1 eV/c 2 to 50 keV/c 2 and above 140 keV/c 2 [6]. The sensitivity of the search is improved by an overall reduction of the background (BG), advances in our understanding of the BG, and a significant increase in available exposure

XMASS detector
Signal MC
Background MC
MC treatment and its uncertainty
Signal peak search
Result
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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