Effective field theory search for high-energy nuclear recoils using the XENON100 dark matter detector

International audience; We report on weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) search results in the XENON100 detector using a nonrelativistic effective field theory approach. The data from science run II (34 kg×224.6 live days) were reanalyzed, with an increased recoil energy interval compared to previous analyses, ranging from (6.6–240) keVnr. The data are found to be compatible with the background-only hypothesis. We present 90% confidence level exclusion limits on the coupling constants of WIMP-nucleon effective operators using a binned profile likelihood method. We also consider the case of inelastic WIMP scattering, where incident WIMPs may up-scatter to a higher mass state, and set exclusion limits on this model as well.