Amaré Julio, Apilluelo Jaime, Cebrián Susana, Cintas David, Coarasa Iván, García Eduardo, Martínez María, Ortigoza Ysrael, de Solórzano Alfonso Ortiz, Pardo Tamara, Puimedón Jorge, Sarsa María Luisa, Seoane Carmen
Universidad de Zaragoza, Centro de Astropartículas y Física de Altas Energías (CAPA), Pedro Cerbuna 12, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain.
Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc, Paseo de los Ayerbe s.n., 22880 Canfranc Estación, Huesca, Spain.
Phys Rev Lett. 2025 Aug 1;135(5):051001. doi: 10.1103/ntnl-zrn9.
The nature of dark matter, which constitutes 27% of the Universe's matter-energy content, remains one of the most challenging open questions in physics. Over the past two decades, the DAMA/LIBRA experiment has reported an annual modulation in the detection rate of ≈250 kg of NaI(Tl) detectors operated at the Gran Sasso Laboratory, which the collaboration interprets as evidence of the galactic dark matter detection. However, this claim has not been independently confirmed and is refuted under certain dark matter particle and halo model scenarios. Therefore, it is crucial to perform an experiment with the same target material. The ANAIS experiment uses 112.5 kg of NaI(Tl) detectors at the Canfranc underground laboratory and it has been collecting data since August 2017 to model-independently test the DAMA/LIBRA result. This Letter presents the results of the annual modulation analysis corresponding to six years of ANAIS-112 data. Our results, the most sensitive to date with the same target material, NaI(Tl), are incompatible with the DAMA/LIBRA modulation signal at a 4σ confidence level. Such a discrepancy strongly challenges the DAMA/LIBRA dark matter interpretation and highlights the need to address systematic uncertainties affecting the comparison, particularly those related to the response of detectors to nuclear recoils, which may require further characterization of the DAMA crystals.
暗物质占宇宙物质 - 能量总量的27%，其本质仍然是物理学中最具挑战性的开放性问题之一。在过去二十年中，DAMA/LIBRA实验报告称，在大萨索实验室运行的约250千克碘化钠（铊）探测器的探测率存在年度调制现象，该合作团队将此解释为银河系暗物质探测的证据。然而，这一说法尚未得到独立证实，并且在某些暗物质粒子和晕模型场景下被反驳。因此，使用相同目标材料进行实验至关重要。ANAIS实验在坎夫兰克地下实验室使用了112.5千克碘化钠（铊）探测器，自2017年8月以来一直在收集数据，以对DAMA/LIBRA结果进行与模型无关的测试。本信函展示了对应六年ANAIS - 112数据的年度调制分析结果。我们的结果是目前使用相同目标材料碘化钠（铊）最为灵敏的，在4σ置信水平下与DAMA/LIBRA调制信号不相符。这种差异强烈质疑了DAMA/LIBRA对暗物质的解释，并凸显了解决影响比较的系统不确定性的必要性，特别是那些与探测器对核反冲的响应相关的不确定性，这可能需要对DAMA晶体进行进一步表征。
