Aprile, E., Aalbers, J., Agostini, F. et al. (136 more authors) (2020) Projected WIMP sensitivity of the XENONnT dark matter experiment. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020 (11). 031. ISSN 1475-7516
Abstract
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).
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Nuclear and Plasma Physics; Particle and High Energy Physics; Physical Sciences |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Swiss National Science Foundation 188716 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 May 2025 11:31 |
Last Modified: | 28 May 2025 11:31 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | IOP Publishing |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/1475-7516/2020/11/031 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227155 |