The XENON dark matter and neutrino experiment
Abstract
<p indent="0mm">The XENON experiment is a leading effort in the direct detection of dark matter, employing advanced liquid xenon (LXe) techniques. Over the past two decades, the XENON collaboration has designed and operated four generations of detectors at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, achieving breakthroughs in LXe detector technology and setting world-leading limits in dark matter and neutrino searches. This review highlights key technologies of the XENON experiment, with a focus on the XENONnT detector, including the dual-phase LXe time projection chamber, online LXe purification, and radon removal via distillation. Since 2021, XENONnT has obtained two science runs of data to search for rare astroparticle signals such as dark matter and neutrinos. A blind analysis of nuclear recoil events from the first science run set a stringent upper limits on the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section, reaching a minimum upper limit of <sc>2.58 × 10<sup>−47</sup> cm<sup>2</sup></sc>. Combining 3.5-tonne-year exposure from both science runs, XENONnT detected coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering signals from solar <sup>8</sup>B neutrinos, and performed the first light dark matter search under significant solar neutrino background. Looking ahead, the XENON collaboration has joined forces with LZ and DARWIN to form the XLZD collaboration, aiming to develop a next-generation multi-ten-tonne-scale LXe dark matter detector. The future experiment will push the sensitivity down to the atmospheric neutrino fog level, and explore more rare processes such as neutrinoless double-beta decay and solar neutrino scattering.</p>
