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We report results of a search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS) with the silicon detectors of the CDMS II experiment. This blind analysis of 140. 2 kg day of data taken between July 2007 and September 2008 revealed three WIMP-candidate events with a surface-event background estimate of 0. 41-₀. ₀₈^+0. 20 (stat) -₀. ₂₄^+0. 28 (syst). Other known backgrounds from neutrons and ^206Pb are limited to <0. 13 and <0. 08 events at the 90% confidence level, respectively. The exposure of this analysis is equivalent to 23. 4 kg day for a recoil energy range of 7--100 keV for a WIMP of mass 10 GeV/c^2. The probability that the known backgrounds would produce three or more events in the signal region is 5. 4%. A profile likelihood ratio test of the three events that includes the measured recoil energies gives a 0. 19% probability for the known-background-only hypothesis when tested against the alternative WIMP+background hypothesis. The highest likelihood occurs for a WIMP mass of 8. 6 GeV/c^2 and WIMP-nucleon cross section of 1. 910^-41 cm^2.
Agnese et al. (Mon,) studied this question.