Exotic Dark Matter Search with the Majorana Demonstrator

I J Arnquist; F T Avignone; A S Barabash; C J Barton; K H Bhimani; E Blalock; B Bos; M Busch; M Buuck; T S Caldwell; Y-D Chan; C D Christofferson; P-H Chu; M L Clark; C Cuesta; J A Detwiler; Yu Efremenko; H Ejiri; S R Elliott; G K Giovanetti; M P Green; J Gruszko; I S Guinn; V E Guiseppe; C R Haufe; R Henning; D Hervas Aguilar; E W Hoppe; A Hostiuc; M F Kidd; I Kim; R T Kouzes; T E Lannen V; A Li; A M Lopez; J M López-Castaño; E L Martin; R D Martin; R Massarczyk; S J Meijer; S Mertens; T K Oli; G Othman; L S Paudel; W Pettus; A W P Poon; D C Radford; J Rager; A L Reine; K Rielage; N W Ruof; D C Schaper; D Tedeschi; R L Varner; S Vasilyev; J F Wilkerson; C Wiseman; W Xu; C-H Yu; B X Zhu; <span class="sc">Majorana</span> Collaboration

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.041001

Exotic Dark Matter Search with the Majorana Demonstrator

Phys Rev Lett. 2024 Jan 26;132(4):041001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.041001.

Authors

I J Arnquist¹, F T Avignone^{2

3}, A S Barabash⁴, C J Barton⁵, K H Bhimani^{6

7}, E Blalock^{7

8}, B Bos^{6

7}, M Busch^{7

9}, M Buuck¹⁰, T S Caldwell⁶, Y-D Chan¹¹, C D Christofferson¹², P-H Chu¹³, M L Clark^{6

7}, C Cuesta¹⁴, J A Detwiler¹⁰, Yu Efremenko^{3

15}, H Ejiri¹⁶, S R Elliott¹³, G K Giovanetti¹⁷, M P Green^{3

7

8}, J Gruszko^{6

7}, I S Guinn³, V E Guiseppe³, C R Haufe^{6

7}, R Henning^{6

7}, D Hervas Aguilar^{6

7}, E W Hoppe¹, A Hostiuc¹⁰, M F Kidd¹⁸, I Kim¹³, R T Kouzes¹, T E Lannen V², A Li^{6

7}, A M Lopez¹⁵, J M López-Castaño³, E L Martin^{6

7}, R D Martin¹⁹, R Massarczyk¹³, S J Meijer¹³, S Mertens^{20

21}, T K Oli⁵, G Othman^{6

7}, L S Paudel⁵, W Pettus²², A W P Poon¹¹, D C Radford³, J Rager⁶, A L Reine^{6

7}, K Rielage¹³, N W Ruof¹⁰, D C Schaper¹³, D Tedeschi², R L Varner³, S Vasilyev²³, J F Wilkerson^{3

6

7}, C Wiseman¹⁰, W Xu⁵, C-H Yu³, B X Zhu¹³; <span class="sc">Majorana</span> Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington 99354, USA.
² Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208, USA.
³ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830, USA.
⁴ National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute" Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow 117218, Russia.
⁵ Department of Physics, University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota 57069, USA.
⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514, USA.
⁷ Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
⁸ Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA.
⁹ Department of Physics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics, and Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.
¹¹ Nuclear Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
¹² South Dakota Mines, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701, USA.
¹³ Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
¹⁴ Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, CIEMAT 28040, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37916, USA.
¹⁶ Research Center for Nuclear Physics, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
¹⁷ Physics Department, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts 01267, USA.
¹⁸ Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee 38505, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
²⁰ Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, München 80805, Germany.
²¹ Physik Department and Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität, München 85748, Germany.
²² IU Center for Exploration of Energy and Matter, and Department of Physics, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
²³ Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna 141980, Russia.

PMID: 38335333
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.041001

Abstract

With excellent energy resolution and ultralow-level radiogenic backgrounds, the high-purity germanium detectors in the Majorana Demonstrator enable searches for several classes of exotic dark matter (DM) models. In this work, we report new experimental limits on keV-scale sterile neutrino DM via the transition magnetic moment from conversion to active neutrinos ν_{s}→ν_{a}. We report new limits on fermionic dark matter absorption (χ+A→ν+A) and sub-GeV DM-nucleus 3→2 scattering (χ+χ+A→ϕ+A), and new exclusion limits for bosonic dark matter (axionlike particles and dark photons). These searches utilize the (1-100)-keV low-energy region of a 37.5-kg y exposure collected by the Demonstrator between May 2016 and November 2019 using a set of ^{76}Ge-enriched detectors whose surface exposure time was carefully controlled, resulting in extremely low levels of cosmogenic activation.