Latest results from the CRESST-II Dark Matter Search

The CRESST-II experiment is searching for Dark Matter particles in the form of WIMPs via their elastic scattering off nuclei in a target material. The CRESST target consists of scintillating CaWO4 crystals which are operated as cryogenic calorimeters at millikelvin temperatures and read out by transition edge sensors. Each interaction in CaWO4 produces a phonon signal in the target crystal and also a light signal that is measured by a secondary cryogenic calorimeter, allowing a very efficient discrimination between electron recoils from radioactive e/γ background and nuclear recoils. Moreover, to some extent, the different types of recoiling nuclei (O, Ca, W) can be distinguished. In the paper we present the latest results of the experiment, obtained from a net exposure of 730kg days acquired with 8 detectors between July 2009 and March 2011. The data has shown a considerable number of events in our signal region. Since this large number of events is not consistent with the known sources of background in our experiment, we discuss the compatibility of this excess of events with a possible WIMP-signal.