XENONnT WIMP Search: Signal & Background Modeling and Statistical Inference
Abstract
The XENONnT experiment searches for weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter scattering off a xenon nucleus. In particular, XENONnT uses a dual-phase time projection chamber with a 5.9-tonne liquid xenon target, detecting both scintillation and ionization signals to reconstruct the energy, position, and type of recoil. A blind search for nuclear recoil WIMPs with an exposure of 1.1 tonne-years (4.18 t fiducial mass) yielded no signal excess over background expectations, from which competitive exclusion limits were derived on WIMP-nucleon elastic scatter cross sections, for WIMP masses ranging from 6 GeV/ up to the TeV/ scale. This work details the modeling and statistical methods employed in this search. By means of calibration data, we model the detector response, which is then used to derive background and signal models. The construction and validation of these models is discussed, alongside additional purely data-driven backgrounds. We also describe the statistical inference framework, including the definition of the likelihood function and the construction of confidence intervals.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.13638,
title = {XENONnT WIMP Search: Signal & Background Modeling and Statistical Inference},
author = {XENON Collaboration and 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 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 C. Di Donato and P. Di Gangi and S. Diglio and K. Eitel 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. Gyoergy 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 M. Kobayashi and A. Kopec and F. Kuger and H. Landsman and R. F. Lang and L. Levinson and I. Li and S. Li and S. Liang and Y. -T. Lin and S. Lindemann and M. Lindner and K. 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 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 A. Takeda and P. -L. Tan and A. Terliuk 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:2406.13638},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
21 pages, 11 figures