Searches for Light Dark Matter with the CRESST-III Experiment

M Mancuso ,M Ješkovský ,M Willers,S Fichtinger,F Pröbst ,S Schönert ,A Erb ,J Rothe ,A D’addabbo ,W Potzel,C Türkoğlu ,J Schieck ,T Ortmann,M Stahlberg,I Usherov,V.m Mokina ,D Hauff,L Stodolsky ,N Ferreiro Iachellini,E Mondragón ,P Gorla,F Von Feilitzsch,C Schwertner,Pavel P Povinec ,L Canonica ,K Schäffner ,H Kraus,H Kluck,E Bertoldo ,A H Abdelhameed,V Palušová ,M Olmi,D Schmiedmayer,S Di Lorenzo,Jakub Kaizer ,C Pagliarone,C Strandhagen,V Zema,J Jochum ,F Petricca,A Kinast,A Fuss,V Schipperges,G Angloher,A Bento ,F Reindl,R Breier,C Bucci,Patrick Bauer ,L Pattavina,A Langenkämper ,R Strauß ,Jakub Zeman

doi:10.1007/s10909-020-02343-3

Abstract

Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) is a long-standing direct dark matter detection experiment with cryogenic detectors located at the underground facility Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. CRESST-III, the third generation of CRESST, was specifically designed to have a world-leading sensitivity for low-mass dark matter (DM) (less than 2 GeV/hbox {c}^{2}) to probe the spin-independent DM-nucleus cross section. At present, a large part of the parameter space for spin-independent scattering off nuclei remains untested for dark matter particles with masses below few GeV/hbox {c}^{2} although many motivated theoretical models having been proposed. The CRESST-III experiment employs scintillating hbox {CaWO}_{{4}} crystals of sim 25 g as target material for dark matter interactions operated as cryogenic scintillating calorimeters at sim 10 mK. CRESST-III first data taking was successfully completed in 2018, achieving an unprecedented energy threshold for nuclear recoils. This result extended the present sensitivity to DM particles as light as sim 160 MeV/hbox {c}^{2}. In this paper, an overview of the CRESST-III detectors and results will be presented.

Highlights

Dark matter (DM) is one of the most exciting puzzles of modern astro-particle physics
We introduce the Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers (CRESST) set-up and detectors, and a short report of the main results of CRESST-III is presented
This rise of events is measured by all CRESST-III detector modules with thresholds below 100 eV: The energy spectra of these events vary for different modules, which argues against a single common source

Summary

Introduction

Dark matter (DM) is one of the most exciting puzzles of modern astro-particle physics. It has been studied for decades, but the nature of this exotic kind of matter is still under investigation. A rising interest points towards low-mass DM models, but a large part of the parameter space for spin-independent scattering off nuclei remains untested for dark matter particles with masses below few GeV/c2. Since the expected recoil spectrum of dark matter particlenucleus elastic scattering shows an exponential rise towards low energies, a small threshold enhances sensitivity and is necessary to investigate low-mass DM. The energy threshold needed to explore DM masses below ∼ 2 GeV/c2 is presently only reachable using cryogenics detectors [10,11,12]. We introduce the CRESST set-up and detectors, and a short report of the main results of CRESST-III is presented

Cryogenic Set‐Up

Detector Module

Data Acquisition

Calibration and Energy Threshold

Dark Matter Results

Conclusion and Perspective