Speaker
Jean-Come Lanfranchi
(TUM)
Description
The CRESST-II (Cryogenic Rare Event Search with Superconducting Thermometers) dark matter search aims at the direct detection of WIMPs (Weakly Interacting Massive Particles) via elastic scattering off nuclei in CaWO4 crystals operated as low-temperature detectors. In a previous measuring campaign from 2009 to 2011 an excess of events over background possibly induced by low-mass WIMPs was recorded. Since this result along with similar indications by other direct searches has generated a tension between experiments with null result (e.g., XENON or LUX), CRESST has started a new data taking campaign in May 2013 with the goal to clarify the situation. In this run a newly developed fully scintillating detector design using CaWO4 crystals produced in Garching has been employed for the first time. Preliminary results of this data taking campaign allow already to set a limit on spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering which probes a new region of parameter space for WIMP masses below 3 GeV/c2, previously not covered by any direct detection search. In addition, the previously seen excess over background has not been confirmed.
