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First Direct-Detection Results on Sub-GeV Dark Matter Using the SENSEI Detector at SNOLAB

Prakruth Adari1,2, Itay M. Bloch3,4, Ana M. Botti5, Mariano Cababie6,5, Gustavo Cancelo5, Brenda A. Cervantes-Vergara7, Michael Crisler5, Miguel Daal8, Ansh Desai9 et al. (SENSEI Collaboration)

Ansh Desai9, Alex Drlica-Wagner5,10,11, Rouven Essig1, Juan Estrada5, Erez Etzion8, Guillermo Fernandez Moroni5, Stephen E. Holland12, Jonathan Kehat8, Yaron Korn8, Ian Lawson13, Steffon Luoma13, Aviv Orly8, Santiago E. Perez5,14,15, Dario Rodrigues14,15, Nathan A. Saffold5, Silvia Scorza16, Aman Singal1,2, Miguel Sofo-Haro5,17, Leandro Stefanazzi5, Kelly Stifter5, Javier Tiffenberg5, Sho Uemura5, Edgar Marrufo Villalpando10, Tomer Volansky8, Yikai Wu1,2, Tien-Tien Yu9, Timón Emken18, and Hailin Xu1,2 (SENSEI Collaboration)

  • 1C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794, USA
  • 3Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 4Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 5Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Post Office Box 500, Batavia, Illinois 60510, USA
  • 6Department of Physics, FCEN, University of Buenos Aires and IFIBA, CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 7Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico
  • 8School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel
  • 9Department of Physics and Institute for Fundamental Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403, USA
  • 10Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 11Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 13SNOLAB, Lively, Ontario P3Y 1N2, Canada
  • 14Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Departamento de Física, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 15CONICET - Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires (IFIBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 16Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, Grenoble 38000, France
  • 17Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, CNEA/CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina
  • 18Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, Stockholm SE-10691, Sweden

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 011804 – Published 9 January, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.011804

Abstract

We present the first results from a dark matter search using six Skipper-CCDs in the SENSEI detector operating at SNOLAB. We employ a bias-mitigation technique of hiding approximately 46% of our total data and aggressively mask images to remove backgrounds. Given a total exposure after masking of 100.72 gram-days from well-performing sensors, we observe 55 two-electron events, 4 three-electron events, and no events containing 4–10 electrons. The two-electron events are consistent with pileup from one-electron events. Among the 4 three-electron events, 2 appear in pixels that are likely impacted by detector defects, although not strongly enough to trigger our “hot-pixel” mask. We use these data to set world-leading constraints on sub-GeV dark matter interacting with electrons and nuclei.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 011804– Published 9 January, 2025
  • Received 22 December 2023
  • Revised 10 July 2024
  • Accepted 12 November 2024
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