First results from ANAIS experiment supported by MultiDark

Preliminary results about annual modulation of ANAIS-112 experiment led by the GIFNA group of UZ, participant in MultiDark, have been released.

ANAIS is taking data at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory in Spain since August 2017 aiming at testing the puzzling observation by the DAMA/LIBRA experiment for about two decades of an annual modulation compatible with that expected for dark matter halo particles.  The MultiDark Consolider project led by the Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT) and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) has supported from the beginning in 2010 the experiment, and financed part of the crystals in the detector.

The results can be found in http://arxiv.org/abs/1903.03973, and have been submitted to be considered for publication in Physical Review Letters.

It presents the first model independent testing of the DAMA/LIBRA result: 1.5 years from ANAIS-112 experiment, using 112.5 kg of sodium iodide as target, have been analyzed searching for modulation. Results are compatible with the absence of modulation and incompatible with DAMA/LIBRA signal at 90% C.L. Results confirm the goal of reaching a 3 sigma sensitivity in 3.5 more years of data-taking.

More information: 

- UZ

- Nature news

- MultiDark project