Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T

• Published in: arXiv.org 2021-02
• Main Authors: Aprile, E, Aalbers, J, Agostini, F, Alfonsi, M, Althueser, L, Andaloro, S, Angelino, E, Antochi, V C, Arneodo, F, Bellagamba, L, Benabderrahmane, M L, Brown, A, Brown, E, Bruenner, S, Bruno, G, Budnik, R, Capelli, C, Cardoso, J M R, Cimmino, B, Clark, M, Colijn, A P, Conrad, J, Decowski, M P, Depoian, A, P Di Gangi, R Di Stefano, Diglio, S, Elykov, A, Ferella, A D, Galloway, M, Gao, F, Hils, C, Hoetzsch, L, Howlett, J, Iacovacci, M, Joerg, F, Kato, N, Kazama, S, Kobayashi, M, Koltman, G, Kopec, A, Landsman, H, Lang, R F, Liang, S, Lin, Q, Lindner, M, Lombardi, F, Long, J, Y Ma, Macolino, C, Mahlstedt, J, Manenti, L, Martens, K, Masbou, J, Masson, D, Mastroianni, S, Messina, M, Mizukoshi, K, Moriyama, S, Murra, M, K Ni, Oberlack, U, Odgers, K, Palacio, J, Pelssers, B, Peres, R, Pierre, M, Plante, G, J Qi, Qin, J, Reichard, S, Rupp, N, J M F dos Santos, Scheibelhut, M, Schreiner, J, H Schulze Eißing, Schumann, M, L Scotto Lavina, Selvi, M, Shockley, E, Silva, M, Simgen, H, Takeda, A, Therreau, C, Toschi, F, Tunnell, C, Volta, G, Wei, Y, Weinheimer, C, Weiss, M, Wenz, D, Wittweg, C, Wolf, T, Z Xu, Yamashita, M, J Ye, Zavattini, G, Zhang, Y, Zhu, T, Zopounidis, J P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Confidence intervals; Dark matter; Inelastic scattering; Likelihood ratio; Recoil; Weakly interacting massive particles
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2011.10431

We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off \(^{129}\)Xe is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV de-excitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.89 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than 2\(\sigma\). A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross-section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than 100 GeV/c\({}^2\), with the strongest upper limit of \(3.3 \times 10^{-39}\) cm\({}^2\) for 130 GeV/c\({}^2\) WIMPs at 90\% confidence level.