Search for Event Rate Modulation in XENON100 Electronic Recoil Data.

We have searched for periodic variations of the electronic recoil event rate in the (2-6) keV energy range recorded between February 2011 and March 2012 with the XENON100 detector, adding up to 224.6 live days in total. Following a detailed study to establish the stability of the detector and its background contributions during this run, we performed an unbinned profile likelihood analysis to identify any periodicity up to 500 days. We find a global significance of less than 1σ for all periods, suggesting no statistically significant modulation in the data. While the local significance for an annual modulation is 2.8σ, the analysis of a multiple-scatter control sample and the phase of the modulation disfavor a dark matter interpretation. The DAMA/LIBRA annual modulation interpreted as a dark matter signature with axial-vector coupling of weakly interacting massive particles to electrons is excluded at 4.8σ.

Limits on spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross sections from 225 live days of XENON100 data.

We present new experimental constraints on the elastic, spin-dependent WIMP-nucleon cross section using recent data from the XENON100 experiment, operated in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. An analysis of 224.6 live days×34 kg of exposure acquired during 2011 and 2012 revealed no excess signal due to axial-vector WIMP interactions with 129Xe and 131Xe nuclei. This leads to the most stringent upper limits on WIMP-neutron cross sections for WIMP masses above 6 GeV/c², with a minimum cross section of 3.5×10(-40) cm² at a WIMP mass of 45 GeV/c², at 90% confidence level.

Dark matter results from 225 live days of XENON100 data.

We report on a search for particle dark matter with the XENON100 experiment, operated at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso for 13 months during 2011 and 2012. XENON100 features an ultralow electromagnetic background of (5.3 ± 0.6) × 10(-3) events/(keV(ee) × kg × day) in the energy region of interest. A blind analysis of 224.6 live days × 34 kg exposure has yielded no evidence for dark matter interactions. The two candidate events observed in the predefined nuclear recoil energy range of 6.6-30.5 keV(nr) are consistent with the background expectation of (1.0 ± 0.2) events. A profile likelihood analysis using a 6.6-43.3 keV(nr) energy range sets the most stringent limit on the spin-independent elastic weakly interacting massive particle-nucleon scattering cross section for weakly interacting massive particle masses above 8 GeV/c(2), with a minimum of 2 × 10(-45) cm(2) at 55 GeV/c(2) and 90% confidence level.

Search for charged Higgs bosons in e+e- collisions at [Formula: see text].

A search is made for charged Higgs bosons predicted by Two-Higgs-Doublet extensions of the Standard Model (2HDM) using electron-positron collision data collected by the OPAL experiment at [Formula: see text], corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 600 pb-1. Charged Higgs bosons are assumed to be pair-produced and to decay into [Formula: see text], τντ or AW±. No signal is observed. Model-independent limits on the charged Higgs-boson production cross section are derived by combining these results with previous searches at lower energies. Under the assumption [Formula: see text], motivated by general 2HDM type II models, excluded areas on the [Formula: see text] plane are presented and charged Higgs bosons are excluded up to a mass of 76.3 GeV at 95 % confidence level, independent of the branching ratio BR(H±â†’τντ ). A scan of the 2HDM type I model parameter space is performed and limits on the Higgs-boson masses [Formula: see text] and mA are presented for different choices of tanß.

Dark matter results from 100 live days of XENON100 data.

We present results from the direct search for dark matter with the XENON100 detector, installed underground at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso of INFN, Italy. XENON100 is a two-phase time-projection chamber with a 62 kg liquid xenon target. Interaction vertex reconstruction in three dimensions with millimeter precision allows the selection of only the innermost 48 kg as the ultralow background fiducial target. In 100.9 live days of data, acquired between January and June 2010, no evidence for dark matter is found. Three candidate events were observed in the signal region with an expected background of (1.8 ± 0.6) events. This leads to the most stringent limit on dark matter interactions today, excluding spin-independent elastic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) nucleon scattering cross sections above 7.0 × 10(-45) cm(2) for a WIMP mass of 50 GeV/c(2) at 90% confidence level.

A neural network classifier in experimental particle physics.

A classification problem in high energy physics has been solved on simulated data using a simple multilayer perceptron comprising binary units which was trained with the CHIR algorithm. The unstable training of such a network on a nonseparable set has been overcome by selecting those weight vectors with good performance while providing a flexible choice of the two types of classification errors. Specific features of the problem have been exploited in order to simplify and optimize the solution which has been compared to the popular backpropagation algorithm and found to perform on a similar level. Additional aspects of this work are the use of the CHIR algorithm on continuous input and incorporating the classic idea of a phi-machine in a multilayer perceptron.