Light Dark Matter Search with 7.8 Tonne-Year of Ionization-Only Data in XENONnT
Abstract
We report on a blinded search for dark matter (DM) using ionization-only (S2-only) signals in XENONnT with a total exposure of over 579 days in three science runs. Dedicated background suppression techniques and the first complete S2-only background model in XENONnT provide sensitivity to nuclear recoils of [0.5, 5.0] and electronic recoils of [0.04, 0.7] . No significant excess over the expected background is observed, and we set 90\% confidence level upper limits on spin-independent DM--nucleon and spin-dependent DM--neutron scattering for DM masses between 3 and 8 , as well as on DM--electron scattering, axion-like particles, and dark photons, improving on previous constraints. For spin-independent DM--nucleon scattering, we exclude cross sections above cm at a DM mass of 5 , pushing the XENONnT sensitivity closer to the region where coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering () becomes an irreducible background.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.11296,
title = {Light Dark Matter Search with 7.8 Tonne-Year of Ionization-Only Data in XENONnT},
author = {E. Aprile and J. Aalbers and K. Abe and M. Adrover and S. Ahmed Maouloud and L. Althueser and B. Andrieu and E. Angelino and D. Antón Martin and S. R. Armbruster and F. Arneodo and L. Baudis and M. Bazyk and V. Beligotti and L. Bellagamba and R. Biondi and A. Bismark and K. Boese and R. M. Braun and G. Bruni and G. Bruno and R. Budnik and C. Cai and C. Capelli and J. M. R. Cardoso and A. P. Cimental Chávez and A. P. Colijn and J. Conrad and J. J. Cuenca-García and V. D'Andrea and L. C. Daniel Garcia and M. P. Decowski and A. Deisting and C. Di Donato and P. Di Gangi and S. Diglio and K. Eitel and S. el Morabit and R. Elleboro and A. Elykov and A. D. Ferella and C. Ferrari and H. Fischer and T. Flehmke and M. Flierman and R. Frankel and D. Fuchs and W. Fulgione and C. Fuselli and F. Gao and R. Giacomobono and F. Girard and R. Glade-Beucke and L. Grandi and J. Grigat and H. Guan and M. Guida and P. Gyorgy and R. Hammann and C. Hils and L. Hoetzsch and N. F. Hood and M. Iacovacci and Y. Itow and J. Jakob and F. Joerg and Y. Kaminaga and M. Kara and S. Kazama and P. Kharbanda and M. Kobayashi and D. Koke and K. Kooshkjalali and A. Kopec and H. Landsman and R. F. Lang and L. Levinson and A. Li and I. Li and S. Li and S. Liang and Z. Liang and Y. -T. Lin and S. Lindemann and M. Lindner and K. Liu and M. Liu and F. Lombardi and J. A. M. Lopes and G. M. Lucchetti and T. Luce and Y. Ma and C. Macolino and G. C. Madduri and J. Mahlstedt and F. Marignetti and T. Marrodán Undagoitia and K. Martens and J. Masbou and S. Mastroianni and V. Mazza and A. Melchiorre and J. Merz and M. Messina and A. Michel and K. Miuchi and A. Molinario and S. Moriyama and M. Murra and J. Müller and K. Ni and C. T. Oba Ishikawa and U. Oberlack and S. Ouahada and B. Paetsch and Y. Pan and Q. Pellegrini and R. Peres and J. Pienaar and M. Pierre and G. Plante and T. R. Pollmann and F. Pompa and A. Prajapati and L. Principe and J. Qin and D. Ramírez García and A. Ravindran and A. Razeto and R. Singh and L. Sanchez and J. M. F. dos Santos and I. Sarnoff and G. Sartorelli and J. Schreiner and P. Schulte and H. Schulze Eißing and M. Schumann and L. Scotto Lavina and M. Selvi and F. Semeria and F. N. Semler and P. Shagin and S. Shi and H. Simgen and Z. Song and A. Stevens and C. Szyszka and A. Takeda and Y. Takeuchi and P. -L. Tan and D. Thers and G. Trinchero and C. D. Tunnell and K. Valerius and S. Vecchi and S. Vetter and G. Volta and B. von Krosigk and C. Weinheimer and M. Weiss and D. Wenz and C. Wittweg and V. H. S. Wu and Y. Xing and D. Xu and Z. Xu and M. Yamashita and J. Yang and L. Yang and J. Ye and M. Yoshida and L. Yuan and G. Zavattini and Y. Zhao and M. Zhong and T. Zhu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.11296},
year = {2026}
}