A Direct Search for Dark Matter with the Majorana Demonstrator Public Deposited

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Last Modified
  • March 20, 2019
Creator
  • Vorren, Kristopher
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
  • The MAJORANA DEMONSTRATOR is a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment currently operating 4850 ft underground in the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, SD. Sub-keV thresholds and excellent low-energy resolution are features of the p-type point-contact high-purity germanium detectors deployed by MAJORANA, making them ideal for use in direct dark matter searches when combined with MAJORANA’s ultra-low backgrounds. An analysis of data from a 2015 commissioning run of the DEMONSTRATOR with 478 kg d of exposure was performed to search for mono-energetic lines in the detectors’ energy-spectrum from bosonic dark matter absorption. No dark matter signature was found in the 5-100 keV range, and upper limits were placed on dark bosonic pseudoscalar and vector-electric couplings. The same analysis produced null results and upper limits for three additional rare-event searches: Pauli-Exclusion Principle violating decay, solar axions, and electron decay. Improvements made to MAJORANA since commissioning will result in increased sensitivity to rare-event searches in future analyses.
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DOI
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Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Advisor
  • Wilkerson, John
  • Engel, Jonathan
  • Iliadis, Christian
  • Clemens, Christopher
  • Henning, Reyco
Degree
  • Doctor of Philosophy
Degree granting institution
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Graduation year
  • 2017
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