ASTROPHYSICS. Exclusion of leptophilic dark matter models using XENON100 electronic recoil data

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2015-08, Vol.349 (6250), p.851-854
• Main Author: XENON Collaboration
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aab2069

Laboratory experiments searching for galactic dark matter particles scattering off nuclei have so far not been able to establish a discovery. We use data from the XENON100 experiment to search for dark matter interacting with electrons. With no evidence for a signal above the low background of our experiment, we exclude a variety of representative dark matter models that would induce electronic recoils. For axial-vector couplings to electrons, we exclude cross sections above 6 × 10(-35) cm(2) for particle masses of m(χ) = 2 GeV/c(2). Independent of the dark matter halo, we exclude leptophilic models as an explanation for the long-standing DAMA/LIBRA signal, such as couplings to electrons through axial-vector interactions at a 4.4σ confidence level, mirror dark matter at 3.6σ, and luminous dark matter at 4.6σ.