We present the first search for bosonic super-WIMPs as keV-scale dark matter candidates performed with the Gerda experiment. Gerda is a neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment which operates high-purity germanium detectors enriched in 76Ge in an ultra-low background environment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of INFN in Italy. Searches were performed for pseudoscalar and vector particles in the mass region from 60 keV/c2 to 1 MeV/c2. No evidence for a dark matter signal was observed, and the most stringent constraints on the couplings of super-WIMPs with masses above 120 keV/c2 have been set. As an example, at a mass of 150 keV/c2 the most stringent direct limits on the dimensionless couplings of axion-like particles and dark photons to electrons of g_ae < 3.10^-12 and alpha'/alpha < 6.5.10^-24 at 90% credible interval, respectively, were obtained.

AGOSTINI M.;  BAKALYAROV A.M.;  BALATA M.;  BARABANOV I.;  BAUDIS L.;  BAUER C.;  BELLOTTI E.;  BELOGUROV S.;  BETTINI A.;  BEZRUKOV L.;  BOROWICZ D.;  BOSSIO E.;  BOTHE V.;  BRUDANIN V.;  BRUGNERA R.;  CALDWELL A.;  CATTADORI C;  CHERNOGOROV A.;  COMELLATO T.;  D'ANDREA V.;  DEMIDOVA E.V.;  DI MARCO N.;  DOROSHKEVICH E.;  EGOROV V.;  FISCHER F.;  FOMINA M.;  GANGAPSHEV A.;  GARFAGNINI A.;  GOOCH C.;  GRABMAYR P.;  GURENTSOV V.;  GUSEV K.;  HAKENMÜLLER J.;  HEMMER S.;  HILLER R.;  HOFMANN W.;  HULT Mikael;  INZHECHIK L.;  JANICSKO J.;  JOCHUM J.;  JUNKER M.;  KAZALOV V.;  KERMAÏDIC Y.;  KHUSHBAKHT H.;  KIHM T.;  KIRPICHNIKOV I;  KLIMENKO A.;  KNEISSL R.;  KNOEPFLE K.T.;  KOCHETOV O.;  KORNOUKHOV V.;  KRAUSE P.;  KUZMINOV V.;  LAUBENSTEIN M.;  LAZZARO A.;  LINDNER M.;  LIPPI I.;  LUBASHEVSKY A.;  LUBSANDORZHIEV B.;  LUTTER Guillaume;  MACOLINO C.;  MAJOROVITS B.;  MANESCHG W.;  MILORADOVIC M.;  MINGAZHEVA R.;  MISIASZEK M.;  MOSEEV P.;  NEMCHENOK I.;  PANAS K.;  PANDOLA L.;  PELCZAR K.;  PERTOLDI L.;  PISERI P.;  PULLIA A.;  RANSOM C.;  RAUSCHER L.;  RIBOLDI S.;  RUMYANTSEVA N.;  SADA C.;  SALAMIDA F.;  SCHOENERT S.;  SCHREINER J.;  SCHÜTT M.;  SCHÜTZ A. K.;  SCHULZ O.;  SCHWARZ M.;  SCHWINGENHEUER B.;  SELIVANENKO O.;  SHEVCHIK E.;  SHIRCHENKO M.;  SIMGEN H.;  SMOLNIKOV A.;  STUKOV D.;  VASENKO A. A.;  VERESNIKOVA A.;  VIGNOLI C.;  VON STURM K.;  WESTER T.;  WIESINGER C.;  WOJCIK M.;  YANOVICH E.;  ZATSCHLER B.;  ZHITNIKOV I.;  ZHUKOV S. V.;  ZINATULINA D.;  ZSCHOCKE A.;  ZSIGMOND A. J.;  ZUBER K.;  ZUZEL G.; 

2020-07-06

AMER PHYSICAL SOC

JRC120926

0031-9007 (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC120926,   

10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.011801 (online),