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
Summary
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
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