Inverse Primakoff Scattering as a Probe of Solar Axions at Liquid Xenon Direct Detection Experiments

Dent, James B.; Dutta, Bhaskar; Newstead, Jayden L.; Thompson, Adrian

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.125.131805

Cited by 59 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…This can relax the tension with astrophysical bounds; however, using the results of Ref. [52,53] we have verified that the discrepancy with the R parameter remains at least at the level of 8σ.…”

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confidence: 56%

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Solar Axions Cannot Explain the XENON1T Excess

et al. 2020

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confidence: 56%

“…L. D. Note added.-Recently, Refs. [52,53] appeared claiming that, besides the axioelectric effect, also the inverse Primakoff process can contribute to the detection of solar axions by XENON1T. This would relax the best fit region toward lower values of g ae at the cost of increasing g aγ .…”

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confidence: 99%

Solar Axions Cannot Explain the XENON1T Excess

et al. 2020

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“…C μ and C θ are constraints on the expected numbers of background events and the shape parameters. Index m runs over backgrounds including 85 Kr, solar neutrino, 136 Xe, 83m Kr, 125 I, 133 Xe, and 131m Xe, while index n is for all six shape parameters.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It was well constrained using its half-life and known dates of neutron calibration. 133 Xe decays to an excited state with a dominant branching ratio and emits an 81 keV prompt γ upon deexcitation [77], resulting in a continuous spectrum starting at ∼75 keV, given the energy resolution. The rate was also constrained in the fit with prediction obtained using time dependence.…”

Section: One Of the Continuous Backgrounds Considered Was 136mentioning

confidence: 99%

Excess electronic recoil events in XENON1T

Aprile¹,

Aalbers²,

Agostini³

et al. 2020

Phys. Rev. D

548

745

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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.

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“…We would like thank Luca Grandi, Tarek Saab, Evan Shockley for discussing in detail the response to the electron and photon in the XENON1T detector, Fei Gao, Jingqiang Ye for the details of fit and the analysis, Aaron Pierce and Sergey Sibiryakov for the axion models and constraints, and Maurizio Giannotti, Andreas Ringwald, and Oscar Straniero for clarifying the weighted average for the R parameter and the theoretical prediction formula. Note added.-Shortly after this work appeared on arXiv, a study [85] appeared that also investigated the inverse Primakoff effect on the solar axion detection.…”

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confidence: 99%

Reexamining the Solar Axion Explanation for the XENON1T Excess

et al. 2020

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The XENON1T collaboration has observed an excess in electronic recoil events below 5 keV over the known background, which could originate from beyond-the-standard-model physics. The solar axion is a well-motivated model that has been proposed to explain the excess, though it has tension with astrophysical observations. The axions traveling from the Sun can be absorbed by the electrons in the xenon atoms via the axion-electron coupling. Meanwhile, they can also scatter with the atoms through the inverse Primakoff process via the axion-photon coupling, which emits a photon and mimics the electronic recoil signals. We found that the latter process cannot be neglected. After including the keV photon produced via the inverse Primakoff process in the detection, the tension with the astrophysical constraints can be significantly reduced. We also explore scenarios involving additional new physics to further alleviate the tension with the astrophysical bounds.

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Inverse Primakoff Scattering as a Probe of Solar Axions at Liquid Xenon Direct Detection Experiments

Cited by 59 publications

References 62 publications

Solar Axions Cannot Explain the XENON1T Excess

Solar Axions Cannot Explain the XENON1T Excess

Excess electronic recoil events in XENON1T

Reexamining the Solar Axion Explanation for the XENON1T Excess

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