Radon Removal in XENONnT down to the Solar Neutrino Level
Abstract
The XENONnT experiment has achieved an exceptionally low Rn activity concentration within its inner 5.9tonne liquid xenon detector of (0.900.01stat.0.07 sys.)Bq/kg, equivalent to about 430 Rn atoms per tonne of xenon. This was achieved by active online radon removal via cryogenic distillation after stringent material selection. The achieved Rn activity concentration is five times lower than that in other currently operational multi-tonne liquid xenon detectors engaged in dark matter searches. This breakthrough enables the pursuit of various rare event searches that lie beyond the confines of the standard model of particle physics, with world-leading sensitivity. The ultra-low Rn levels have diminished the radon-induced background rate in the detector to a point where it is for the first time comparable to the solar neutrino-induced background, which is poised to become the primary irreducible background in liquid xenon-based detectors.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2502.04209,
title = {Radon Removal in XENONnT down to the Solar Neutrino Level},
author = {E. Aprile and J. Aalbers and K. Abe and S. Ahmed Maouloud and L. Althueser and B. Andrieu and E. Angelino and D. Antón Martin and F. Arneodo and L. Baudis and M. Bazyk and L. Bellagamba and R. Biondi and A. Bismark and K. Boese and A. Brown 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 A. Elykov and A. D. Ferella and C. Ferrari and H. Fischer and T. Flehmke and M. Flierman and W. Fulgione and C. Fuselli and P. Gaemers and R. Gaior and M. Galloway and F. Gao and S. Ghosh and R. Giacomobono and R. Glade-Beucke and L. Grandi and J. Grigat and H. Guan and M. Guida and P. Gyorgy and R. Hammann and A. Higuera 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 P. Kavrigin and S. Kazama and P. Kharbanda and M. Kobayashi and D. Koke and A. Kopec and H. Landsman and R. F. Lang and L. Levinson 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 J. Loizeau and F. Lombardi and J. Long and J. A. M. Lopes and T. Luce and Y. Ma and C. Macolino and J. Mahlstedt and A. Mancuso and L. Manenti and F. Marignetti and T. Marrodán Undagoitia and K. Martens and J. Masbou and E. Masson and S. Mastroianni and A. Melchiorre and J. Merz and M. Messina and A. Michael and K. Miuchi and A. Molinario and S. Moriyama and K. Morå and Y. Mosbacher and M. Murra and J. Müller and K. Ni and U. Oberlack and B. Paetsch and Y. Pan and Q. Pellegrini and R. Peres and C. Peters and J. Pienaar and M. Pierre and G. Plante and T. R. Pollmann and L. Principe and J. Qi and J. Qin and D. Ramírez García and M. Rajado and R. Singh and L. Sanchez and J. M. F. dos Santos and I. Sarnoff and G. Sartorelli and J. Schreiner and D. Schulte and P. Schulte and H. Schulze Eißing and M. Schumann and L. Scotto Lavina and M. Selvi and F. Semeria and P. Shagin and S. Shi and J. Shi and M. Silva and H. Simgen and C. Szyszka and A. Takeda and Y. Takeuchi and P. -L. Tan and D. Thers and F. Toschi and G. Trinchero and C. D. Tunnell and F. Tönnies and K. Valerius and S. Vecchi and S. Vetter and F. I. Villazon Solar and G. Volta 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 L. Yang and J. Ye and L. Yuan and G. Zavattini and M. Zhong},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.04209},
year = {2025}
}