First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
J. Aalbers, D. S. Akerib, C. W. Akerlof, A. K. Al Musalhi, F. Alder, A. Alqahtani, S. K. Alsum, C. S. Amarasinghe, A. Ames, Tyler Anderson, N. Angelides, H. M. Araújo, J. E. Armstrong, M. Arthurs, Sivar Azadi, A. J. Bailey, Alexander A. Baker, J. Balajthy, S. Balashov, J. Bang, J. W. Bargemann, M. J. Barry, Jochen Barthel, D. Bauer, A. Baxter, K. Beattie, Jean Louis Van Belle, P. Beltrame, J. R. Bensinger, Theophilus Benson, E. P. Bernard, A. Bhatti, A. Biekert, T. P. Biesiadzinski, H. J. Birch, B. Birrittella, G. M. Blockinger, K. E. Boast, B. Boxer, R. Bramante, C. Brew, P. Brás, J. Buckley, V. V. Bugaev, S. Burdin, J. K. Busenitz, M. Buuck, R. Cabrita, C. Carels, D. Carlsmith, B. T. Carlson, M. C. Carmona-Benitez, M. Cascella, C. Chan, A. Chawla, H. Chen, J. J. Cherwinka, N. I. Chott, A. Cole, J. E. Coleman, M. V. Converse, A. Cottle, G. A. Cox, W. W. Craddock, Oisín Creaner, D. Curran, A. Currie, J. E. Cutter, C. E. Dahl, A. David, J. Davis, T. J. R. Davison, John M. DelGaudio, S. Dey, L. de Viveiros, A. Dobi, J. E. Y. Dobson, E. Druszkiewicz, A. Dushkin, T. K. Edberg, W. R. Edwards, M. Elnimr, W. Emmet, S. R. Eriksen, C.H. Faham, A. Fan, Simon Fayer, N. M. Fearon, S. Fiorucci, H. Flaecher, P. Ford, V. Francis, E. D. Fraser, T. Fruth, R. J. Gaitskell, N. J. Gantos, D. Ramírez García, A. Geffre, V.M. Gehman, J. Genovesi
Abstract
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment is a dark matter detector centered on a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber operating at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. This Letter reports results from LUX-ZEPLIN's first search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with an exposure of 60 live days using a fiducial mass of 5.5 t. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis shows the data to be consistent with a background-only hypothesis, setting new limits on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon, spin-dependent WIMP-neutron, and spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross sections for WIMP masses above 9 GeV/c^{2}. The most stringent limit is set for spin-independent scattering at 36 GeV/c^{2}, rejecting cross sections above 9.2×10^{-48} cm at the 90% confidence level.