- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Measurements and models of enhanced recombination following inner-shell vacancies in liquid xenon

J. Aalbers1,2, D. S. Akerib1,2, A. K. Al Musalhi3,*, F. Alder3, C. S. Amarasinghe4,†, A. Ames1,2, T. J. Anderson1,2, N. Angelides5, H. M. Araújo5 et al. (LZ Collaboration)

H. M. Araújo5, J. E. Armstrong6, M. Arthurs1,2, A. Baker5,7, S. Balashov8, J. Bang9, J. W. Bargemann4, E. E. Barillier10,11, K. Beattie12, T. Benson13, A. Bhatti6, A. Biekert12,14, T. P. Biesiadzinski1,2, H. J. Birch10,11, E. Bishop15, G. M. Blockinger16, B. Boxer17, C. A. J. Brew8, P. Brás18, S. Burdin19, M. Buuck1,2, M. C. Carmona-Benitez20, M. Carter19, A. Chawla21, H. Chen12, J. J. Cherwinka13, Y. T. Chin20, N. I. Chott22, M. V. Converse23, R. Coronel1,2, A. Cottle3, G. Cox24, D. Curran24, C. E. Dahl25,26, I. Darlington3, S. Dave3, A. David3, J. Delgaudio24, S. Dey27, L. de Viveiros20, L. Di Felice5, C. Ding9, J. E. Y. Dobson3,7, E. Druszkiewicz23, S. Dubey9, S. R. Eriksen28, A. Fan1,2, N. M. Fearon27, N. Fieldhouse27, S. Fiorucci12, H. Flaecher28, E. D. Fraser19, T. M. A. Fruth29, R. J. Gaitskell9, A. Geffre24, J. Genovesi20, C. Ghag3, R. Gibbons12,14, S. Gokhale30, J. Green27, M. G. D. van der Grinten8, J. J. Haiston22, C. R. Hall6, T. Hall19, S. Han1,2, E. Hartigan-O’Connor9, S. J. Haselschwardt10, M. A. Hernandez10,11, S. A. Hertel31, G. Heuermann10, G. J. Homenides32, M. Horn24, D. Q. Huang33, D. Hunt27, E. Jacquet5, R. S. James3,‡, M. K. Kannichankandy16, A. C. Kaboth21, A. C. Kamaha33, D. Khaitan23, A. Khazov8, J. Kim4, Y. D. Kim34, J. Kingston17, R. Kirk9, D. Kodroff12, L. Korley10, E. V. Korolkova35, H. Kraus27, S. Kravitz36, L. Kreczko28, V. A. Kudryavtsev35, C. Lawes7, D. S. Leonard34, K. T. Lesko12, C. Levy16, J. Lin12,14, A. Lindote18, W. H. Lippincott4, M. I. Lopes18, W. Lorenzon10, C. Lu9, S. Luitz1,2, P. A. Majewski8, A. Manalaysay12, R. L. Mannino37, C. Maupin24, M. E. McCarthy23, G. McDowell10, D. N. McKinsey12,14, J. McLaughlin25, J. B. McLaughlin3, R. McMonigle16, E. Mizrachi6,37, M. E. Monzani1,2,38, E. Morrison22, B. J. Mount39, M. Murdy31, A. St. J. Murphy15, H. N. Nelson4, F. Neves18, A. Nguyen15, C. L. O’Brien36, I. Olcina12,14, K. C. Oliver-Mallory5, J. Orpwood35, K. Y. Oyulmaz15, K. J. Palladino27, J. Palmer21, N. J. Pannifer28, N. Parveen16, S. J. Patton12, B. Penning10,11, G. Pereira18, E. Perry12, T. Pershing37, A. Piepke32, Y. Qie23, J. Reichenbacher22, C. A. Rhyne9, G. R. C. Rischbieter10,11, E. Ritchey6, H. S. Riyat15, R. Rosero30, T. Rushton35, D. Rynders24, D. Santone21,27, A. B. M. R. Sazzad32, R. W. Schnee22, G. Sehr36, B. Shafer6, S. Shaw15, K. Shi10, T. Shutt1,2, J. J. Silk6, C. Silva18, J. Siniscalco3, R. Smith12,14, V. N. Solovov18, P. Sorensen12, J. Soria12,14, I. Stancu32, A. Stevens3,5, K. Stifter26, B. Suerfu12,14, T. J. Sumner5, A. Swain27, M. Szydagis16, D. R. Tiedt24, M. Timalsina12, Z. Tong5, D. R. Tovey35, J. Tranter35, M. Trask4, M. Tripathi17, A. Usón15, A. C. Vaitkus9, O. Valentino5,§, V. Velan12, A. Wang1,2, J. J. Wang32, Y. Wang12,14, J. R. Watson12,14, L. Weeldreyer32, T. J. Whitis4, K. Wild20, M. Williams10, W. J. Wisniewski1, L. Wolf21, F. L. H. Wolfs23, S. Woodford19, D. Woodward12,20, C. J. Wright28, Q. Xia12, J. Xu37, Y. Xu33, M. Yeh30, D. Yeum6, W. Zha20, and H. Zhang15 (LZ Collaboration)

  • 1SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025-7015, USA
  • 2Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085, USA
  • 3University College London (UCL), Department of Physics and Astronomy, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 4University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA
  • 5Imperial College London, Physics Department, Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 6University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA
  • 7King’s College London, King’s College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 8STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 9Brown University, Department of Physics, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-9037, USA
  • 10University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA
  • 11University of Zurich, Department of Physics, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California 94720-8099, USA
  • 13University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA
  • 14University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
  • 15University of Edinburgh, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
  • 16University at Albany (SUNY), Department of Physics, Albany, New York 12222-0100, USA
  • 17University of California, Davis, Department of Physics, Davis, California 95616-5270, USA
  • 18Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), University of Coimbra, P-3004 516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 19University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
  • 20Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA
  • 21Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Physics, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 22South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701-3901, USA
  • 23University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA
  • 24South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA), Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754-1700, USA
  • 25Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA
  • 26Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, Illinois 60510-5011, USA
  • 27University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 28University of Bristol, H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
  • 29The University of Sydney, School of Physics, Physics Road, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 30Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
  • 31University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337, USA
  • 32University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 34587-0324, USA
  • 33University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
  • 34IBS Center for Underground Physics (CUP), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea
  • 35University of Sheffield, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
  • 36University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712-1192, USA
  • 37Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA
  • 38Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, V-00120, Vatican City State
  • 39Black Hills State University, School of Natural Sciences, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799-0002, USA

  • *Contact author: aiham.almusalhi@ucl.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: chami@ucsb.edu
  • ‡Also at School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, V1C 3010, Australia.
  • §Contact author: o.valentino22@imperial.ac.uk
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 112, 012024 – Published 30 July, 2025Erratum Phys. Rev. D 114, 079902 (2026)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/447w-94h3

Abstract

Electron-capture decays of Xe125 and Xe127, and double-electron-capture decays of Xe124, are backgrounds in searches for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) conducted by dual-phase xenon time projection chambers such as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ). These decays produce signals with more light and less charge than equivalent-energy β decays and correspondingly overlap more with WIMP signals. We measure three electron-capture charge yields in LZ: the 1.1 keV M-shell, 5.2 keV L-shell, and 33.2 keV K-shell at drift fields of 193 and 96.5  V/cm. The LL double-electron-capture decay of Xe124 exhibits even more pronounced shifts in charge and light. We provide a first model of double-electron-capture charge yields using the link between ionization density and electron-ion recombination, and identify a need for more accurate calculations. Finally, we discuss the implications of the reduced charge yield of these decays and other interactions creating inner-shell vacancies for future dark matter searches.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Corrections

22 December, 2025

Correction: A byline footnote for author R. S. James has been inserted.

Erratum

Erratum: Measurements and models of enhanced recombination following inner-shell vacancies in liquid xenon [Phys. Rev. D 112, 012024 (2025)]

J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. D 114, 079902 (2026)

Article Text

References (54)

  1. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041002 (2023).
  2. Z. Bo et al. (PandaX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 134, 011805 (2025).
  3. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041003 (2023).
  4. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), arXiv:2410.17036.
  5. D. S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 102, 112002 (2020).
  6. D. S. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 96, 112011 (2017).
  7. D. J. Temples, J. McLaughlin, J. Bargemann, D. Baxter, A. Cottle, C. E. Dahl, W. H. Lippincott, A. Monte, and J. Phelan, Phys. Rev. D 104, 112001 (2021).
  8. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Nature (London) 568, 532 (2019).
  9. E. Aprile et al. (XENON Collaboration), Phys. Rev. C 106, 024328 (2022).
  10. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), J. Phys. G 52, 015103 (2024).
  11. J. Thomas and D. A. Imel, Phys. Rev. A 36, 614 (1987).
  12. M. Szydagis et al., Front. Det. Sci. Technol. 2, 1480975 (2024).
  13. J. Aalbers et al., J. Phys. G 50, 013001 (2022).
  14. A. Gaspert, P. Giampa, and D. E. Morrissey, Phys. Rev. D 105, 035020 (2022).
  15. S. Kubota, M. Hishida, and J.-z. Raun, J. Phys. C 11, 2645 (1978).
  16. K. Fujii, Y. Endo, Y. Torigoe, S. Nakamura, T. Haruyama, K. Kasami, S. Mihara, K. Saito, S. Sasaki, and H. Tawara, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 795, 293 (2015).
  17. V. Chepel and H. Araújo, J. Instrum. 8, R04001 (2013).
  18. G. Anton et al. (EXO Collaboration), Phys. Rev. C 101, 065501 (2020).
  19. C. E. Dahl, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University, 2009.
  20. Y. Meng et al. (PandaX Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 261802 (2021).
  21. L. Baudis, P. Sanchez-Lucas, and K. Thieme, Eur. Phys. J. C 81, 1 (2021).
  22. M. Szydagis, N. Barry, K. Kazkaz, J. Mock, D. Stolp, M. Sweany, M. Tripathi, S. Uvarov, N. Walsh, and M. Woods, J. Instrum. 6, P10002 (2011).
  23. M. Szydagis, A. Fyhrie, D. Thorngren, and M. Tripathi, J. Instrum. 8, C10003 (2013).
  24. D. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 953, 163047 (2020).
  25. B. J. Mount et al. (LZ Collaboration), arXiv:1703.09144.
  26. D. Foreman-Mackey, D. W. Hogg, D. Lang, and J. Goodman, Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 125, 306 (2013).
  27. D. Foreman-Mackey et al., J. Open Source Software 4, 1864 (2019).
  28. M.-M. Bé et al., Table of radionuclides (Vol. 8—A = 41 to 198) (2016), https://cea.hal.science/cea-02476462/.
  29. S. Valkiers, Y. Aregbe, P. D. P. Taylor, and P. De Bièvre, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 173, 55 (1998).
  30. A. Thompson et al., X-ray data booklet, https://xdb.lbl.gov/xdb-new.pdf (2009).
  31. X. Mougeot, Appl. Radiat. Isot. 154, 108884 (2019).
  32. J. Katakura, Nucl. Data Sheets 112, 495 (2011).
  33. E. Schönfeld and H. Janssen, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 369, 527 (1996).
  34. S. Nagy, Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry (EOLSS Publications, 2009), Vol. 2.
  35. A. M. Mohammedein et al., AIP Conf. Proc. 1202, 213 (2010).
  36. M. J. Berger et al., NIST standard reference database 124, 10.18434/T4NC7P (2005).
  37. J. Hubbell and S. Seltzer, Tables of X-Ray Mass Attenuation Coefficients and Mass Energy-Absorption Coefficients 1 keV to 20 MeV for Elements Z = 1 to 92 and 48, Additional Substances of Dosimetric Interest, http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/XrayMassCoef/cover.html.
  38. A. Mozumder, Chem. Phys. Lett. 245, 359 (1995).
  39. E. A. C. Pérez, J. Menéndez, and A. Schwenk, Phys. Lett. B 797, 134885 (2019).
  40. O. Niţescu, S. Ghinescu, V. A. Sevestrean, M. Horoi, F. Šimkovic, and S. Stoica, J. Phys. G 51, 125103 (2024).
  41. O. Niţescu, S. Ghinescu, V. A. Sevestrean, M. Horoi, F. Šimkovic, and S. Stoica (private communication).
  42. D. K. Gaikwad, P. P. Pawar, and T. P. Selvam, Radiat. Phys. Chem. 138, 75 (2017).
  43. I. M. Obodovskii and K. T. Ospanov, Exp. Tech. 37, 42 (1994), https://inis.iaea.org/records/3xqte-av330.
  44. D. Akerib et al. (LUX Collaboration), J. Instrum. 15, T02007 (2020).
  45. M. Szydagis et al., Instruments 5, 13 (2021).
  46. B. Lenardo, K. Kazkaz, A. Manalaysay, J. Mock, M. Szydagis, and M. Tripathi, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. 62, 3387 (2015).
  47. J. Aalbers et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. D 109, 092003 (2024).
  48. E. Aprile et al., Phys. Rev. D 86, 112004 (2012).
  49. L. Baudis, H. Dujmovic, C. Geis, A. James, A. Kish, A. Manalaysay, T. Marrodán Undagoitia, and M. Schumann, Phys. Rev. D 87, 115015 (2013).
  50. M. Szydagis, C. Levy, G. M. Blockinger, A. Kamaha, N. Parveen, and G. R. C. Rischbieter, Phys. Rev. D 103, 012002 (2021).
  51. D. S. Akerib et al. (LZ Collaboration), Phys. Rev. C 102, 014602 (2020).
  52. J. Xu et al., Phys. Rev. D 109, L051101 (2024).
  53. P. J. W. Faulkner et al. (GridPP Collaboration), J. Phys. G 32, N1 (2006).
  54. D. Britton et al., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 367, 2447 (2009).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 112, 012024– Published 30 July, 2025
  • Received 7 March 2025
  • Accepted 19 May 2025
  • Corrected 22 December 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation