| 1. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Search for New Physics in Electronic Recoil Data from XENONnT
- 2022
-
In: Physical Review Letters. - : American Physical Society. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 129:16
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We report on a blinded analysis of low-energy electronic recoil data from the first science run of the XENONnT dark matter experiment. Novel subsystems and the increased 5.9 ton liquid xenon target reduced the background in the (1, 30) keV search region to (15.8±1.3) events/(ton×year×keV), the lowest ever achieved in a dark matter detector and ∼5 times lower than in XENON1T. With an exposure of 1.16 ton-years, we observe no excess above background and set stringent new limits on solar axions, an enhanced neutrino magnetic moment, and bosonic dark matter.
|
|
| 2. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
An approximate likelihood for nuclear recoil searches with XENON1T data
- 2022
-
In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 82:11
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The XENON collaboration has published stringent limits on specific dark matter – nucleon recoil spectra from dark matter recoiling on the liquid xenon detector target. In this paper, we present an approximate likelihood for the XENON1T 1 t-year nuclear recoil search applicable to any nuclear recoil spectrum. Alongside this paper, we publish data and code to compute upper limits using the method we present. The approximate likelihood is constructed in bins of reconstructed energy, profiled along the signal expectation in each bin. This approach can be used to compute an approximate likelihood and therefore most statistical results for any nuclear recoil spectrum. Computing approximate results with this method is approximately three orders of magnitude faster than the likelihood used in the original publications of XENON1T, where limits were set for specific families of recoil spectra. Using this same method, we include toy Monte Carlo simulation-derived binwise likelihoods for the upcoming XENONnT experiment that can similarly be used to assess the sensitivity to arbitrary nuclear recoil signatures in its eventual 20 t-year exposure.
|
|
| 3. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Application and modeling of an online distillation method to reduce krypton and argon in XENON1T
- 2022
-
In: Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2050-3911. ; 2022:5
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A novel online distillation technique was developed for the XENON1T dark matter experiment to reduce intrinsic background components more volatile than xenon, such as krypton or argon, while the detector was operating. The method is based on a continuous purification of the gaseous volume of the detector system using the XENON1T cryogenic distillation column. A krypton-in-xenon concentration of (360 +/- 60) ppq was achieved. It is the lowest concentration measured in the fiducial volume of an operating dark matter detector to date. A model was developed and fitted to the data to describe the krypton evolution in the liquid and gas volumes of the detector system for several operation modes over the time span of 550 days, including the commissioning and science runs of XENON1T. The online distillation was also successfully applied to remove Ar-37 after its injection for a low-energy calibration in XENON1T. This makes the usage of Ar-37 as a regular calibration source possible in the future. The online distillation can be applied to next-generation liquid xenon time projection chamber experiments to remove krypton prior to, or during, any science run. The model developed here allows further optimization of the distillation strategy for future large-scale detectors.
|
|
| 4. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Double-weak decays of 124Xe and 136Xe in the XENON1T and XENONnT experiments
- 2022
-
In: Physical Review C. - 2469-9985 .- 2469-9993. ; 106:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present results on the search for two-neutrino double-electron capture (2νECEC) of 124Xe and neutrinoless double-β decay (0νββ) of 136Xe in XENON1T. We consider captures from the K shell up to the N shell in the 2νECEC signal model and measure a total half-life of T2νECEC1/2=(1.1±0.2stat±0.1sys)×1022yr with a 0.87 kg yr isotope exposure. The statistical significance of the signal is 7.0σ. We use XENON1T data with 36.16 kg yr of 136Xe exposure to search for 0νββ. We find no evidence of a signal and set a lower limit on the half-life of T0νββ1/2>1.2×1024 yr at 90%CL. This is the best result from a dark matter detector without an enriched target to date. We also report projections on the sensitivity of XENONnT to 0νββ. Assuming a 275 kg yr 136Xe exposure, the expected sensitivity is T0νββ1/2>2.1×1025 yr at 90%CL, corresponding to an effective Majorana mass range of ⟨mββ⟩<(0.19–0.59)eV/c2.
|
|
| 5. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Effective Field Theory and Inelastic Dark Matter Results from XENON1T
-
Other publication (other academic/artistic)abstract
- In this work we expand on the XENON1T nuclear recoil searches and study the individual signals of Dark Matter interactions from operators up to dimension-eight in a Chiral Effective Field Theory (ChEFT) as well as a model of inelastic Dark Matter using data from the two science runs of the detector totalling 1 tonne*year exposure. For these analyses we extended the region of interest from [4.9, 40.9]keVnr to [4.9, 54.4]keVnr to enhance our sensitivity for signals that peak at nonzero energies. We show that the data is consistent with a background only hypothesis, with small excesses in the models which peak between 20 and 50keVnr, obtaining a maximum local discovery significance of 1.7 for the VVs ChEFT model for a WIMP mass of 70GeV/c2, and 1.8 for an iDM particle of 50GeV/c2 with a mass splitting of 100keV/c2. For each model we report 90% confidence level upper limits. We also report limits on three benchmark models of WIMP interaction using ChEFT for which we investigate the effect of isospin breaking interactions, reporting up to 6 orders of magnitude weaker limits with respect to the isospin conserving case driven by cancellations in the expected rate.
|
|
| 6. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Emission of single and few electrons in XENON1T and limits on light dark matter
- 2022
-
In: Physical Review D. - 2470-0010 .- 2470-0029. ; 106:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Delayed single- and few-electron emissions plague dual-phase time projection chambers, limiting their potential to search for light-mass dark matter. This paper examines the origins of these events in the XENON1T experiment. Characterization of the intensity of delayed electron backgrounds shows that the resulting emissions are correlated, in time and position, with high-energy events and can effectively be vetoed. In this work we extend previous S2-only analyses down to a single electron. From this analysis, after removing the correlated backgrounds, we observe rates <30 events/(electron×kg×day) in the region of interest spanning 1 to 5 electrons. We derive 90% confidence upper limits for dark matter-electron scattering, first direct limits on the electric dipole, magnetic dipole, and anapole interactions, and bosonic dark matter models, where we exclude new parameter space for dark photons and solar dark photons.
|
|
| 7. |
- Aprile, E., et al.
(author)
-
Material radiopurity control in the XENONnT experiment
- 2022
-
In: European Physical Journal C. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044 .- 1434-6052. ; 82:7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The selection of low-radioactive construction materials is of the utmost importance for rare-event searches and thus critical to the XENONnT experiment. Results of an extensive radioassay program are reported, in which material samples have been screened with gamma-ray spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and 222Rn emanation measurements. Furthermore, the cleanliness procedures applied to remove or mitigate surface contamination of detector materials are described. Screening results, used as inputs for a XENONnT Monte Carlo simulation, predict a reduction of materials background (∼∼17%) with respect to its predecessor XENON1T. Through radon emanation measurements, the expected 222Rn activity concentration in XENONnT is determined to be 4.2 (+0.5−0.7) μBq/kg, a factor three lower with respect to XENON1T. This radon concentration will be further suppressed by means of the novel radon distillation system.
|
|
| 8. |
- Althueser, L., et al.
(author)
-
GPU-based optical simulation of the DARWIN detector
- 2022
-
In: Journal of Instrumentation. - 1748-0221 .- 1748-0221. ; 17:7
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Understanding propagation of scintillation light is critical for maximizing the discovery potential of next-generation liquid xenon detectors that use dual-phase time projection chamber technology. This work describes a detailed optical simulation of the DARWIN detector implemented using Chroma, a GPU-based photon tracking framework. To evaluate the framework and to explore ways of maximizing efficiency and minimizing the time of light collection, we simulate several variations of the conventional detector design. Results of these selected studies are presented. More generally, we conclude that the approach used in this work allows one to investigate alternative designs faster and in more detail than using conventional Geant4 optical simulations, making it an attractive tool to guide the development of the ultimate liquid xenon observatory.
|
|
