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First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment

E. Aprile1, K. Abe2, F. Agostini3, S. Ahmed Maouloud4, L. Althueser5,*, B. Andrieu4, E. Angelino6, J. R. Angevaare7, V. C. Antochi8 et al. (XENON Collaboration††)

V. C. Antochi8, D. Antón Martin9, F. Arneodo10, L. Baudis11, A. L. Baxter12, M. Bazyk13, L. Bellagamba3, R. Biondi14, A. Bismark11, E. J. Brookes7, A. Brown15, S. Bruenner7, G. Bruno13, R. Budnik16, T. K. Bui2, C. Cai17, J. M. R. Cardoso18, D. Cichon14, A. P. Cimental Chavez11, A. P. Colijn7, J. Conrad8, J. J. Cuenca-García11, J. P. Cussonneau13,†, V. D’Andrea19,‡, M. P. Decowski7, P. Di Gangi3, S. Di Pede7, S. Diglio13, K. Eitel20, A. Elykov20, S. Farrell21, A. D. Ferella22,19, C. Ferrari19, H. Fischer15, M. Flierman7, W. Fulgione6,19, C. Fuselli7, P. Gaemers7, R. Gaior4, A. Gallo Rosso8, M. Galloway11, F. Gao17, R. Glade-Beucke15, L. Grandi9, J. Grigat15, H. Guan12, M. Guida14, R. Hammann14, A. Higuera21, C. Hils23, L. Hoetzsch14, N. F. Hood24, J. Howlett1, M. Iacovacci25, Y. Itow26, J. Jakob5, F. Joerg14, A. Joy8, N. Kato2, M. Kara20, P. Kavrigin16, S. Kazama26, M. Kobayashi26, G. Koltman16, A. Kopec24, F. Kuger15, H. Landsman16, R. F. Lang12, L. Levinson16, I. Li21, S. Li12, S. Liang21, S. Lindemann15, M. Lindner14, K. Liu17, J. Loizeau13, F. Lombardi23, J. Long9, J. A. M. Lopes18,§, Y. Ma24, C. Macolino22,19, J. Mahlstedt8, A. Mancuso3, L. Manenti10, F. Marignetti25, T. Marrodán Undagoitia14, K. Martens2, J. Masbou13, D. Masson15, E. Masson4, S. Mastroianni25, M. Messina19, K. Miuchi27, K. Mizukoshi27, A. Molinario6, S. Moriyama2, K. Morå1,∥, Y. Mosbacher16, M. Murra1, J. Müller15, K. Ni24, U. Oberlack23, B. Paetsch16, J. Palacio14, R. Peres11, C. Peters21, J. Pienaar9, M. Pierre7,13, V. Pizzella14, G. Plante1, J. Qi24, J. Qin12, D. Ramírez García11, R. Singh12, L. Sanchez21, J. M. F. dos Santos18, I. Sarnoff10, G. Sartorelli3, J. Schreiner14, D. Schulte5, P. Schulte5, H. Schulze Eißing5, M. Schumann15, L. Scotto Lavina4, M. Selvi3, F. Semeria3, P. Shagin23, S. Shi1, E. Shockley24, M. Silva18, H. Simgen14, A. Takeda2, P.-L. Tan8, A. Terliuk14,¶, D. Thers13, F. Toschi20,15, G. Trinchero6, C. Tunnell21, F. Tönnies15, K. Valerius20, G. Volta11, C. Weinheimer5, M. Weiss16, D. Wenz23,**, C. Wittweg11, T. Wolf14, V. H. S. Wu20, Y. Xing13, D. Xu1, Z. Xu1, M. Yamashita2, L. Yang24, J. Ye1, L. Yuan9, G. Zavattini28, M. Zhong24, and T. Zhu1 (XENON Collaboration††)

  • 1Physics Department, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA
  • 2Kamioka 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
  • 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bologna and INFN-Bologna, 40126 Bologna, Italy
  • 4LPNHE, Sorbonne Université, CNRS/IN2P3, 75005 Paris, France
  • 5Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany
  • 6INAF-Astrophysical Observatory of Torino, Department of Physics, University of Torino and INFN-Torino, 10125 Torino, Italy
  • 7Nikhef and the University of Amsterdam, Science Park, 1098XG Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 8Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, Stockholm SE-10691, Sweden
  • 9Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
  • 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
  • 12Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
  • 13SUBATECH, IMT Atlantique, CNRS/IN2P3, Université de Nantes, Nantes 44307, France
  • 14Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
  • 15Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
  • 16Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
  • 17Department of Physics & Center for High Energy Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
  • 18LIBPhys, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 19INFN-Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso and Gran Sasso Science Institute, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
  • 20Institute for Astroparticle Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
  • 21Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 22Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
  • 23Institut für Physik and Exzellenzcluster PRISMA+, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
  • 24Department of Physics, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
  • 25Department of Physics “Ettore Pancini,” University of Napoli and INFN-Napoli, 80126 Napoli, Italy
  • 26Kobayashi-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
  • 27Department of Physics, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
  • 28INFN—Ferrara and Dip. di Fisica e Scienze della Terra, Università di Ferrara, 44122 Ferrara, Italy

  • *l.althueser@uni-muenster.de
  • †Deceased.
  • ‡Also at INFN—Roma Tre, 00146 Roma, Italy.
  • §Also at Coimbra Polytechnic—ISEC, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal.
  • ∥knut.dundas.moraa@columbia.edu
  • Also at Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
  • **dwenz@uni-mainz.de
  • ††xenon@lngs.infn.it
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041003 – Published 28 July, 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.041003

Abstract

We report on the first search for nuclear recoils from dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with the XENONnT experiment, which is based on a two-phase time projection chamber with a sensitive liquid xenon mass of 5.9 ton. During the (1.09±0.03)  ton yr exposure used for this search, the intrinsic Kr85 and Rn222 concentrations in the liquid target are reduced to unprecedentedly low levels, giving an electronic recoil background rate of (15.8±1.3)  events/ton yr keV in the region of interest. A blind analysis of nuclear recoil events with energies between 3.3 and 60.5 keV finds no significant excess. This leads to a minimum upper limit on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section of 2.58×10−47  cm2 for a WIMP mass of 28  GeV/c2 at 90% confidence level. Limits for spin-dependent interactions are also provided. Both the limit and the sensitivity for the full range of WIMP masses analyzed here improve on previous results obtained with the XENON1T experiment for the same exposure.

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Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

synopsis

The Search for WIMPs Continues

Published 28 July, 2023

Two mammoth underground detectors have delivered more stringent upper limits on how strongly a putative dark matter candidate interacts with normal matter.

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See Also

First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment

J. Aalbers et al. (LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration)
Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041002 (2023)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 041003– Published 28 July, 2023
  • Received 6 March 2023
  • Accepted 22 June 2023
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