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Article
Report number	astro-ph/0512120 ; DAPNIA-2005-357
Title	Critical revision of the ZEPLIN-I sensitivity to WIMP interactions
Author(s)	Benoît, A (Grenoble, CRTBT) ; Chapellier, M (Saclay) ; Chardin, G (DSM, DAPNIA, Saclay) ; Dumoulin, L (CSNSM, Orsay) ; Eitel, K (Karlsruhe, Forschungszentrum) ; Gascon, J (Lyon, IPN) ; Gerbier, G (DSM, DAPNIA, Saclay) ; Goldbach, C (Paris, Inst. Astrophys.) ; Jochum, J (Tubingen U.) ; de Lesquen, A (DSM, DAPNIA, Saclay) ; Nollez, G (Paris, Inst. Astrophys.) ; Pröbst, F (Munich, Max Planck Inst.) ; Seidel, W (Munich, Max Planck Inst.)
Publication	2006
Imprint	6 Dec 2005
Number of pages	8
In:	Phys. Lett. B 637 (2006) 156-160
DOI	10.1016/j.physletb.2006.04.030
Subject category	Astrophysics and Astronomy
Abstract	The ZEPLIN collaboration has recently published its first result presenting a maximum sensitivity of $1.1 \times 10^{-6}$ picobarn for a WIMP mass of $\approx$ 60 GeV. The analysis is based on a discrimination method using the different time distribution of scintillation light generated in electron recoil and nuclear recoil interactions. We show that the methodology followed both for the calibration of the ZEPLIN-I detector response and for the estimation of the discrimination power is not reliable enough to claim any background discrimination at the present stage. The ZEPLIN-I sensitivity appears then to be in the order of 10$^{-3}$ picobarn, three orders of magnitude above the claimed 1.1 10$^{-6}$ picobarn.

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