The CRESST experiment aims for a direct detection of Dark Matter particles via their interactions with ordinary matter in a detector. This work deals with the analysis of recent CRESST data. The methodology of the analysis is extended to a consistent treatment of the compound target material used, allowing, in particular, to increase the sensitivity of CRESST to light Dark Matter particles. This new approach includes the development of a modified statistical method for the calculation of exclusion limits, which is optimized for the case of two-dimensional data as given in CRESST. Such limits are derived for the standard model of elastic Dark Matter scattering, as well as for an alternative theory in which the interaction in the detector is assumed to be inelastic. Finally, the current work investigates a possible excess of observed events above the known backgrounds, which could potentially be induced by interactions of light Dark Matter particles.
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The CRESST experiment aims for a direct detection of Dark Matter particles via their interactions with ordinary matter in a detector. This work deals with the analysis of recent CRESST data. The methodology of the analysis is extended to a consistent treatment of the compound target material used, allowing, in particular, to increase the sensitivity of CRESST to light Dark Matter particles. This new approach includes the development of a modified statistical method for the calculation of exclusi...
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