We report the first dark matter search results from XENON1T, a ∼2000-kg-target-mass dual-phase (liquid-gas) xenon time projection chamber in operation at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy and the first ton-scale detector of this kind. The blinded search used 34.2 live days of data acquired between November 2016 and January 2017. Inside the ð1042 AE 12Þ-kg fiducial mass and in the ½5; 40 keV nr energy range of interest for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches, the electronic recoil background was ð1.93 AE 0.25Þ × 10 −4 events=ðkg × day × keV ee Þ, the lowest ever achieved in such a dark matter detector. A profile likelihood analysis shows that the data are consistent with the background-only

DARk matter WImp search with liquid xenoN (DARWIN) will be an experiment for the direct detection of dark matter using a multi-ton liquid xenon time projection chamber at its core. Its primary goal will be to explore the experimentally accessible parameter space for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) in a wide mass-range, until neutrino interactions with the target become an irreducible background. The prompt scintillation light and the charge signals induced by particle interactions in the xenon will be observed by VUV sensitive, ultra-low background photosensors. Besides its excellent sensitivity to WIMPs above a mass of 5 GeV/c(2), such a detector with its large mass, lowenergy threshold and ultra-low background level will also be sensitive to other rare interactions. It will search for solar axions, galactic axion-like particles and the neutrinoless double-beta decay of (136)Xe, as well as measure the low-energy solar neutrino flux with < 1% precision, observe coherent neutrinonucleus interactions, and detect galactic supernovae. We present the concept of the DARWIN detector and discuss its physics reach, the main sources of backgrounds and the ongoing detector design and RD; efforts.

We report results from searches for new physics with low-energy electronic recoil data recorded with the XENON1T detector. With an exposure of 0.65 tonne-years and an unprecedentedly low background rate of 76 AE 2 stat events=ðtonne × year × keVÞ between 1 and 30 keV, the data enable one of the most sensitive searches for solar axions, an enhanced neutrino magnetic moment using solar neutrinos, and bosonic dark matter. An excess over known backgrounds is observed at low energies and most prominent between 2 and 3 keV. The solar axion model has a 3.4σ significance, and a three-dimensional 90% confidence surface is reported for axion couplings to electrons, photons, and nucleons. This surface is inscribed in the cuboid defined by g ae < 3.8 × 10 −12 , g ae g eff an < 4.8 × 10 −18 , and g ae g aγ < 7.7 × 10 −22 GeV −1 , and excludes either g ae ¼ 0 or g ae g aγ ¼ g ae g eff an ¼ 0. The neutrino magnetic moment signal is similarly favored over background at 3.2σ, and a confidence interval of μ ν ∈ ð1.4; 2.9Þ × 10 −11 μ B (90% C.L.) is reported. Both results are in strong tension with stellar constraints. The excess can also be explained by β decays of tritium at 3.2σ significance with a corresponding tritium concentration in xenon of ð6.2 AE 2.0Þ × 10 −25 mol=mol. Such a trace amount can neither be confirmed nor excluded with current knowledge of its production and reduction mechanisms. The significances of the solar axion and neutrino magnetic moment hypotheses are decreased to 2.0σ and 0.9σ, respectively, if an unconstrained tritium component is included in the fitting. With respect to bosonic dark matter, the excess favors a monoenergetic peak at ð2.3 AE 0.2Þ keV (68% C.L.) with a 3.0σ global (4.0σ local) significance over background. This analysis sets the most restrictive direct constraints to date on pseudoscalar and vector bosonic dark matter for most masses between 1 and 210 keV=c 2. We also consider the possibility that 37 Ar may be present in the detector, yielding a 2.82 keV peak from electron capture. Contrary to tritium, the 37 Ar concentration can be tightly constrained and is found to be negligible.

We report the first experimental results on spin-dependent elastic WIMP-nucleon scattering from the XENON1T dark matter search experiment. The analysis uses the full tonne-year exposure of XENON1T to constrain the spin-dependent proton-only and neutron-only cases. No significant signal excess is observed, and a profile likelihood ratio analysis is used to set exclusion limits on the WIMP-nucleon interactions. This includes the most stringent constraint to date on the WIMPneutron cross section, with a minimum of 6.3 × 10 −42 cm 2 at 30 GeV/c 2 and 90% confidence level. The results are compared with those from collider searches and used to exclude new parameter space in an isoscalar theory with an axial-vector mediator.

The XENON1T experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) is the first WIMP dark matter detector operating with a liquid xenon target mass above the ton-scale. Out of its 3.2 t liquid xenon inventory, 2.0 t constitute the active target of the dual-phase time projection chamber. The scintillation and ionization signals from particle interactions are detected with low-background photomultipliers. This article describes the XENON1T instrument and its subsystems as well as strategies to achieve an unprecedented low background level. First results on the detector response and the performance of the subsystems are also presented.

XENONnT is a dark matter direct detection experiment, utilizing 5.9 t of instrumented liquid xenon, located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. In this work, we predict the experimental background and project the sensitivity of XENONnT to the detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). The expected average differential background rate in the energy region of interest, corresponding to (1, 13) keV and (4, 50) keV for electronic and nuclear recoils, amounts to 12.3 ± 0.6 (keV t y)-1 and (2.2± 0.5)× 10−3 (keV t y)-1, respectively, in a 4 t fiducial mass. We compute unified confidence intervals using the profile construction method, in order to ensure proper coverage. With the exposure goal of 20 t y, the expected sensitivity to spin-independent WIMP-nucleon interactions reaches a cross-section of 1.4×10−48 cm2 for a 50 GeV/c2 mass WIMP at 90% confidence level, more than one order of magnitude beyond the current best limit, set by XENON1T . In addition, we show that for a 50 GeV/c2 WIMP with cross-sections above 2.6×10−48 cm2 (5.0×10−48 cm2) the median XENONnT discovery significance exceeds 3σ (5σ). The expected sensitivity to the spin-dependent WIMP coupling to neutrons (protons) reaches 2.2×10−43 cm2 (6.0×10−42 cm2).

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The XENON1T experiment searches for dark matter particles through their scattering off xenon atoms in a 2 metric ton liquid xenon target. The detector is a dual-phase time projection chamber, which measures simultaneously the scintillation and ionization signals produced by interactions in target volume, to reconstruct energy and position, as well as the type of the interaction. The background rate in the central volume of XENON1T detector is the lowest achieved so far with a liquid xenon-based direct detection experiment. In this work we describe the response model of the detector, the background and signal models, and the statistical inference procedures used in the dark matter searches with a 1 metric ton × year exposure of XENON1T data, that leads to the best limit to date on WIMP-nucleon spin-independent elastic scatter cross section for WIMP masses above 6 GeV=c 2 .