An Effective Field Theory Analysis of the First LUX Dark Matter Search
  The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter search was a 250-kg active mass
dual-phase time projection chamber that operated by detecting light and
ionization signals from particles incident on a xenon target. In December 2015,
LUX reported a minimum 90% upper C.L. of 6e-46 cm^2 on the spin-independent
WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross section based on a 1.4e4 kg*day exposure
in its first science run. Tension between experiments and the absence of a
definitive positive detection suggest it would be prudent to search for WIMPs
outside the standard spin-independent/spin-dependent paradigm. Recent
theoretical work has identified a complete basis of 14 independent effective
field theory (EFT) operators to describe WIMP-nucleon interactions. In addition
to spin-independent and spin-dependent nuclear responses, these operators can
produce novel responses such as angular-momentum-dependent and spin-orbit
couplings. Here we report on a search for all 14 of these EFT couplings with
data from LUX's first science run. Limits are placed on each coupling as a
function of WIMP mass.
