Dark Matter Search Results from the PICO-60 CF₃I Bubble Chamber

C. Amole , M. Ardid , D. M. Asner , D. Baxter , E. Behnke , P. Bhattacharjee , H. Borsodi , M. Bou-Cabo

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S. J. Brice D. Broemmelsiek K. Clark J. I. Collar P. S. Cooper M. Crisler C. E. Dahl S. Daley M. Das F. Debris N. Dhungana J. Farine I. Felis R. Filgas F. Girard G. Giroux A. Grandison M. Hai J. Hall O. Harris M. Jin C. B. Krauss S. Fallows M. Lafreni\`ere M. Laurin I. Lawson I. Levine W. H. Lippincott E. Mann D. Maurya P. Mitra R. Neilson A. J. Noble A. Plante R. B. Podviianiuk S. Priya E. Ramberg A. E. Robinson R. Rucinski M. Ruschman O. Scallon S. Seth P. Simon A. Sonnenschein I. \v{S}tekl E. V\`azquez-J\`auregui J. Wells U. Wichoski V. Zacek J. Zhang I. A. Shkrob

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classification ✦ hep-ex astro-ph.COphysics.ins-det

keywords pico-60bubbledarkmatterchamberbackgroundinteractingacoustic

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New data are reported from the operation of the PICO-60 dark matter detector, a bubble chamber filled with 36.8 kg of CF$_3$I and located in the SNOLAB underground laboratory. PICO-60 is the largest bubble chamber to search for dark matter to date. With an analyzed exposure of 92.8 livedays, PICO-60 exhibits the same excellent background rejection observed in smaller bubble chambers. Alpha decays in PICO-60 exhibit frequency-dependent acoustic calorimetry, similar but not identical to that reported recently in a C$_3$F$_8$ bubble chamber. PICO-60 also observes a large population of unknown background events, exhibiting acoustic, spatial, and timing behaviors inconsistent with those expected from a dark matter signal. These behaviors allow for analysis cuts to remove all background events while retaining $48.2\%$ of the exposure. Stringent limits on weakly interacting massive particles interacting via spin-dependent proton and spin-independent processes are set, and most interpretations of the DAMA/LIBRA modulation signal as dark matter interacting with iodine nuclei are ruled out.

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Dark Matter Search Results from the PICO-60 CF₃I Bubble Chamber

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