Direct Dark Matter Search with the XENON100 Experiment

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dc.contributor.advisorOberlack, Uween_US
dc.creatorMei, Yuanen_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-03-08T00:36:37Zen_US
dc.date.available2013-03-08T00:36:37Zen_US
dc.date.issued2012en_US
dc.description.abstractDark matter, a non-luminous, non-baryonic matter, is thought to constitute 23 % of the matter-energy components in the universe today. Except for its gravitational effects, the existence of dark matter has never been confirmed by any other means and its nature remains unknown. If a hypothetical Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe, it could have a relic abundance close to that of dark matter today, which provides a promising particle candidate of dark matter. Minimal Super-Symmetric extensions to the standard model predicts a stable particle with mass in the range 10 GeV/c 2 to 1000 GeV/c 2 , and spin-independent cross-section with ordinary matter nucleon σ x ∠ 1 × 10 -43 cm 2 . The XENON100 experiment deploys a Dual Phase Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chamber (LXeTPC) of 62 kg liquid xenon as its sensitive volume, to detect scintillation ( S1 ) and ionization ( S2 ) signals from WIMP dark matter particles directly scattering off xenon nuclei. The detector is located underground at Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in central Italy. 1.4 km of rock (3.7 km water equivalent) reduces the cosmic muon background by a factor of 10 6 . The event-by-event 3D positioning capability of TPC allows volume fiducialization. With the self-shielding power of liquid xenon, as well as a 99 kg liquid xenon active veto, the electromagnetic radiation background is greatly suppressed. By utilizing the difference of ( S2/S1 ) between electronic recoil and nuclear recoil, the expected WIMP signature, a small nuclear recoil energy deposition, could be discriminated from electronic recoil background with high efficiency. XENON100 achieved the lowest background rate (∠ 2.2 × 10 -2 events/kg/day/keV) in the dark matter search region (∠ 40 keV) among all direct dark matter detectors. With 11.2 days of data, XENON100 already sets the world's best spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section limit of 2.7 × 10 -44 cm 2 at WIMP mass 50 GeV/c 2 . With 100.9 days of data, XENON100 excludes WIMP-nucleon cross-section above 7.0 × 10 -45 cm 2 for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c 2 at 90% confidence level.en_US
dc.format.extent194 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoTHESIS PHYS. 2012 MEIen_US
dc.identifier.citationMei, Yuan. "Direct Dark Matter Search with the XENON100 Experiment." (2012) Diss., Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/70350">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/70350</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.digitalMeiYen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/70350en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectPure sciencesen_US
dc.subjectDark matteren_US
dc.subjectMatter-energy componentsen_US
dc.subjectParticlesen_US
dc.subjectMatter nucleonen_US
dc.subjectAstrophysicsen_US
dc.subjectParticle physicsen_US
dc.titleDirect Dark Matter Search with the XENON100 Experimenten_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentPhysicsen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineNatural Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelDoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophyen_US
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