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WIMP Dark Matter Search Using a 3.1 Tonne-Year Exposure of the XENONnT Experiment

E. Aprile ¹, J. Aalbers ², K. Abe ³, S. Ahmed Maouloud ⁴, L. Althueser ⁵, B. Andrieu ⁴, E. Angelino ^6,7, D. Antón Martin ⁸, S. R. Armbruster ⁹ et al. (XENON Collaboration)

S. R. Armbruster ⁹, F. Arneodo ¹⁰, L. Baudis ¹¹, M. Bazyk ¹², L. Bellagamba ¹³, R. Biondi ^9,14, A. Bismark ¹¹, K. Boese ⁹, A. Brown ¹⁵, G. Bruno ¹², R. Budnik ¹⁴, C. Cai¹⁶, C. Capelli ¹¹, J. M. R. Cardoso ¹⁷, A. P. Cimental Chávez ¹¹, A. P. Colijn ¹⁸, J. Conrad ¹⁹, J. J. Cuenca-García ¹¹, V. D’Andrea ^7,*, L. C. Daniel Garcia ⁴, M. P. Decowski ¹⁸, A. Deisting ²⁰, C. Di Donato ^21,7, P. Di Gangi ¹³, S. Diglio ¹², K. Eitel ²², S. el Morabit ¹⁸, A. Elykov ²², A. D. Ferella ^21,7, C. Ferrari ⁷, H. Fischer ¹⁵, T. Flehmke ¹⁹, M. Flierman ¹⁸, D. Fuchs¹⁹, W. Fulgione ^6,7, C. Fuselli ¹⁸, P. Gaemers ¹⁸, R. Gaior ⁴, F. Gao ¹⁶, S. Ghosh ²³, R. Giacomobono ²⁴, F. Girard ⁴, R. Glade-Beucke ¹⁵, L. Grandi ⁸, J. Grigat ¹⁵, H. Guan ²³, M. Guida ⁹, P. Gyorgy ²⁰, R. Hammann ^9,†, A. Higuera ²⁵, C. Hils ²⁰, L. Hoetzsch ^9,11,‡, N. F. Hood ²⁶, M. Iacovacci ²⁴, Y. Itow ²⁷, J. Jakob ⁵, F. Joerg ¹¹, Y. Kaminaga ³, M. Kara ²², P. Kavrigin ¹⁴, S. Kazama ²⁷, P. Kharbanda ¹⁸, M. Kobayashi ²⁷, D. Koke ⁵, K. Kooshkjalali²⁰, A. Kopec ^26,§, H. Landsman ¹⁴, R. F. Lang ²³, L. Levinson ¹⁴, I. Li ²⁵, S. Li ²⁸, S. Liang ²⁵, Z. Liang ²⁸, Y.-T. Lin ⁹, S. Lindemann ¹⁵, M. Lindner ⁹, K. Liu ¹⁶, M. Liu^1,16, J. Loizeau ¹², F. Lombardi ²⁰, J. Long ⁸, J. A. M. Lopes ^17,∥, G. M. Lucchetti¹³, T. Luce ¹⁵, Y. Ma ²⁶, C. Macolino ^21,7, J. Mahlstedt ¹⁹, A. Mancuso ¹³, L. Manenti ¹⁰, F. Marignetti ²⁴, T. Marrodán Undagoitia ⁹, K. Martens ³, J. Masbou ¹², S. Mastroianni ²⁴, A. Melchiorre ^21,7, J. Merz ²⁰, M. Messina ⁷, A. Michael⁵, K. Miuchi ²⁹, A. Molinario ⁶, S. Moriyama ³, K. Morå ¹, Y. Mosbacher¹⁴, M. Murra ¹, J. Müller ¹⁵, K. Ni ²⁶, U. Oberlack ²⁰, B. Paetsch ¹⁴, Y. Pan ⁴, Q. Pellegrini ⁴, R. Peres ¹¹, C. Peters²⁵, J. Pienaar ^8,14, M. Pierre ¹⁸, G. Plante ¹, T. R. Pollmann ¹⁸, L. Principe ¹², J. Qi ²⁶, J. Qin ²⁵, D. Ramírez García ¹¹, M. Rajado ¹¹, A. Ravindran ¹², A. Razeto ⁷, R. Singh ²³, L. Sanchez ²⁵, J. M. F. dos Santos ¹⁷, I. Sarnoff ¹⁰, G. Sartorelli ¹³, J. Schreiner⁹, P. Schulte ⁵, H. Schulze Eißing ⁵, M. Schumann ¹⁵, L. Scotto Lavina ⁴, M. Selvi ¹³, F. Semeria ¹³, P. Shagin ²⁰, S. Shi ¹, J. Shi¹⁶, M. Silva ¹⁷, H. Simgen ⁹, A. Stevens ¹⁵, C. Szyszka²⁰, A. Takeda ³, Y. Takeuchi ²⁹, P.-L. Tan ^19,1, D. Thers ¹², G. Trinchero ⁶, C. D. Tunnell ²⁵, F. Tönnies ¹⁵, K. Valerius ²², S. Vecchi ³⁰, S. Vetter ²², F. I. Villazon Solar²⁰, G. Volta ⁹, C. Weinheimer ⁵, M. Weiss ¹⁴, D. Wenz ⁵, C. Wittweg ^11,¶, V. H. S. Wu ²², Y. Xing ¹², D. Xu ¹, Z. Xu ^1,**, M. Yamashita ³, J. Yang ²⁸, L. Yang ²⁶, J. Ye ³¹, L. Yuan ⁸, G. Zavattini ³⁰, Y. Zhao¹⁶, and M. Zhong ²⁶ (XENON Collaboration)

¹Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
²Nikhef and The University of Groningen, Van Swinderen Institute, 9747AG Groningen, Netherlands
³Kamioka Observatory, Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, and Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (WPI), University of Tokyo, Higashi-Mozumi, Kamioka, Hida, Gifu 506-1205, Japan
⁴LPNHE, Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IN2P3, 75005 Paris, France
⁵Institut für Kernphysik, University of Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
⁶INAF-Astrophysical Observatory of Torino, Department of Physics, University of Torino and INFN-Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy
⁷INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
⁸Department of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
⁹Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁰New York University Abu Dhabi—Center for Astro, Particle and Planetary Physics, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
¹¹Physik-Institut, University of Zürich, 8057 Zürich, Switzerland
¹²SUBATECH, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Nantes Université, Nantes 44307, France
¹³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna and INFN-Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
¹⁴Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
¹⁵Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
¹⁶Department of Physics and Center for High Energy Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China
¹⁷LIBPhys, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal
¹⁸Nikhef and the University of Amsterdam, Science Park, 1098XG Amsterdam, Netherlands
¹⁹Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, Stockholm SE-10691, Sweden
²⁰Institut für Physik and Exzellenzcluster PRISMA⁺, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
²¹Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
²²Institute for Astroparticle Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
²³Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
²⁴Department of Physics “Ettore Pancini,” University of Napoli and INFN-Napoli, 80126 Napoli, Italy
²⁵Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
²⁶Department of Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
²⁷Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe, and Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8602, Japan
²⁸Department of Physics, School of Science, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310030, People’s Republic of China
²⁹Department of Physics, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
³⁰INFN-Ferrara and Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
³¹School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518172, People’s Republic of China

^*Also at INFN-Roma Tre, 00146 Roma, Italy.
^†Contact author: robert.hammann@mpi-hd.mpg.de
^‡Contact author: Luisa.Hoetzsch@mpi-hd.mpg.de
^§Present address: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
^∥Also at Coimbra Polytechnic—ISEC, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal.
^¶Contact author: christian.wittweg@physik.uzh.ch
^**Contact author: zihao.xu@columbia.edu

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 221003 – Published 24 November, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/msw4-t342

Abstract

We report on a search for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM) via elastic DM-xenon-nucleus interactions in the XENONnT experiment. We combine datasets from the first and second science campaigns resulting in a total exposure of 3.1 tonne-years. In a blind analysis of nuclear recoil events with energies above $3.8 {keV}_{NR}$ , we find no significant excess above background. We set new upper limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section for WIMP masses above $10 GeV / c^{2}$ with a minimum of $1.7 \times 10^{- 47} {cm}^{2}$ at 90% confidence level for a WIMP mass of $30 GeV / c^{2}$ . We achieve a best median sensitivity of $1.4 \times 10^{- 47} {cm}^{2}$ for a $41 GeV / c^{2}$ WIMP. Compared to the result from the first XENONnT science dataset, we improve our sensitivity by a factor of up to 1.8.

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References (45)

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 221003– Published 24 November, 2025

Vol. 135, Iss. 22 — 26 November 2025

Received 25 February 2025
Accepted 9 September 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/msw4-t342

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.

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WIMP Dark Matter Search Using a 3.1 Tonne-Year Exposure of the XENONnT Experiment

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