Latest Results from LUX

par Lea Reichhart (UCL)

vendredi 7 févr. 2014, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Paris

Auditorium M. Vivargent (LAPP)

A vast number of astronomical observation point towards the existence of an unknown dark component dominating the matter content of our Universe. The most compelling candidates for dark matter are the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which have great potential to be detected in deep underground low background experiments, looking for direct interactions of WIMPs with dedicated target materials. Very recently, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) experiment, operated in the Davis Cavern of the SURF laboratory, USA, has announced results from its first science run. From an exposure of 85 days, having found no evidence of signal above expected background, LUX has set constraints on scalar WIMP-nucleon interactions above 7.6x10-46 cm2 at 33 GeV/c2 WIMP mass (90% C.L.) - three times more sensitive than any competing experiment. This first result also seriously challenges the interpretation of hints of signal detected in other experiments as arising from low-mass WIMPs.