# A low-mass dark matter search using ionization signals in XENON100

Abstract : We perform a low-mass dark matter search using an exposure of 30 kg$\times$yr with the XENON100 detector. By dropping the requirement of a scintillation signal and using only the ionization signal to determine the interaction energy, we lowered the energy threshold for detection to 0.7 keV for nuclear recoils. No dark matter detection can be claimed because a complete background model cannot be constructed without a primary scintillation signal. Instead, we compute an upper limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section under the assumption that every event passing our selection criteria could be a signal event. Using an energy interval from 0.7 keV to 9.1 keV, we derive a limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section that excludes WIMPs with a mass of 6 GeV/$c^2$ above $1.2 \times 10^{-41}$ cm$^2$ at 90\% confidence level.
Document type :
Journal articles
Domain :

http://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-01349865
Contributor : Sylvie Flores <>
Submitted on : Friday, July 29, 2016 - 8:41:15 AM
Last modification on : Thursday, February 7, 2019 - 2:57:49 PM

### Citation

E. Aprile, Jean-Pierre Cussonneau, M. Le Calloch, L. Scotto Lavina, D. Thers. A low-mass dark matter search using ionization signals in XENON100. Physical Review D, American Physical Society, 2016, 94, pp.092001. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.94.092001⟩. ⟨in2p3-01349865⟩

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