Light Dark Matter Search with a High-Resolution Athermal Phonon Detector Operated above Ground
I. Alkhatib, D. W. P. Amaral, T. Aralis, T. Aramaki, I. J. Arnquist, I. Ataee Langroudy, E. Azadbakht, S. Banik, D. Barker, C. Bathurst, D. Bauer, L. V. S. Bezerra, R. Bhattacharyya, Tobias Binder, M. A. Bowles, P. L. Brink, R. Bunker, B. Cabrera, R. Calkins, R. A. Cameron, C. Cartaro, D. G. Cerdeño, Y.-Y. Chang, M. Chaudhuri, R. Chen, N. Chott, J. Cooley, H. Coombes, Jacqueline Corbett, P. Cushman, F. De Brienne, M. L. di Vacri, M. D. Diamond, E. Fascione, E. Figueroa‐Feliciano, C. W. Fink, K. Fouts, M. Fritts, G. Gerbier, R. Germond, M. Ghaith, S. R. Golwala, H. R. Harris, Nick Herbert, B. A. Hines, M. Hollister, Z. Hong, E. W. Hoppe, L. Hsu, M. E. Huber, V. Iyer, D. Jardin, A. Jastram, Vipul Kashyap, M. Kelsey, A. Kubik, Noah Kurinsky, Richard Lawrence, A. Li, B. Loer, E. Lopez Asamar, P. Lukens, Danika Marina Macdonell, D. B. MacFarlane, R. Mahapatra, V. Mandic, N. Mast, A. Mayer, H. Meyer Zu Theenhausen, Eva Michaud, E. Michielin, N. Mirabolfathi, B. Mohanty, J. D. Morales Mendoza, S.S. Nagorny, J. K. Nelson, H. Neog, V. Novati, J. L. Orrell, S. M. Oser, W. A. Page, P. Pakarha, R. Partridge, R. Podviianiuk, F. Ponce, S. S. Poudel, M. Pyle, W. Rau, E. Reid, R. Ren, T. Reynolds, A. Roberts, Alan Robinson, T. Saab, B. Sadoulet, J. Sander, Amirmohammad Sattari, R. W. Schnee, S. Scorza, B. Serfass
Abstract
We present limits on spin-independent dark matter-nucleon interactions using a 10.6 g Si athermal phonon detector with a baseline energy resolution of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{E}=3.86\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.04(\mathrm{stat}{)}_{\ensuremath{-}0.00}^{+0.19}(\mathrm{syst})\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{eV}$. This exclusion analysis sets the most stringent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section limits achieved by a cryogenic detector for dark matter particle masses from 93 to $140\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MeV}/{c}^{2}$, with a raw exposure of 9.9 g d acquired at an above-ground facility. This work illustrates the scientific potential of detectors with athermal phonon sensors with eV-scale energy resolution for future dark matter searches.