Search

Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are well-motivated candidates for dark matter. One signature of galactic WIMPs is the annual modulation expected in a detector's interaction rate, which arises from Earth's revolution around the Sun. Over two decades, the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has observed such modulation with 250 kg of NaI(Tl) scintillators, in accordance with WIMP expectations but inconsistent with the negative results of other experiments. The signal depends on the target material, so to validate or refute the DAMA result, the experiment must be replicated using the same material. This is the goal of the ANAIS–112 experiment, currently underway since August 2017 with 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl). In this work, we present a reanalysis of three years of data employing an improved analysis chain to enhance the experimental sensitivity. The results presented here are consistent with the absence of modulation and inconsistent with DAMA's observation at nearly 3σ confidence level, with the potential to reach a 5σ level within 8 years from the beginning of the data collection. Additionally, we explore the impact of different scintillation quenching factors in the comparison between ANAIS–112 and DAMA/LIBRA. The DAMA/LIBRA experiment has observed a clear signal of dark matter for over 20 years. Although this signal contradicts the negative results of other experiments, it cannot be dismissed without replication using the same material. The authors present the negative results from the ANAIS-112 experiment, which uses the same target and shows strong tension with DAMA/LIBRA [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sodium Iodide Thallium doped (NaI(Tl)) scintillation detectors have been applied to the direct searches for dark matter since the 1980s and have produced one of the most challenging results in the field—the observation by the DAMA/LIBRA collaboration of an annual modulation in the detection rate for more than twenty cycles. This result is very difficult to reconcile with negative results derived from other experiments using a large variety of target materials and detection techniques. However, it has been neither confirmed nor refuted in a model independent way up to the present. Such a model independent test of the DAMA/LIBRA result is the goal of the ANAIS-112 experiment, presently in the data taking phase at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain. ANAIS-112 design and operation leans on the expertise acquired at the University of Zaragoza in direct searches for Dark Matter particles using different targets and techniques and in particular using NaI(Tl) scintillation detectors for about thirty years, which are reviewed in the first section of this manuscript. In addition to presenting the status and more recent results of the ANAIS-112 experiment, open research lines, continuing this effort, will be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]