Search for Coherent Elastic Scattering of Solar 8B Neutrinos in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment

We report on a search for nuclear recoil signals from solar B-8 neutrinos elastically scattering off xenon nuclei in XENON1T data, lowering the energy threshold from 2.6 to 1.6 keV. We develop a variety of novel techniques to limit the resulting increase in backgrounds near the threshold. No significant B-8 neutrinolike excess is found in an exposure of 0.6 t x y. For the first time, we use the nondetection of solar neutrinos to constrain the light yield from 1-2 keV nuclear recoils in liquid xenon, as well as nonstandard neutrino-quark interactions. Finally, we improve upon world-leading constraints on dark matter-nucleus interactions for dark matter masses between 3 and 11 GeV c(-2) by as much as an order of magnitude.

Automated summary

In this study, researchers report on their search for nuclear recoil signals from solar B-8 neutrinos elastically scattering off xenon nuclei in XENON1T data, lowering the energy threshold and developing novel techniques to limit background interference. No significant B-8 neutrino-like excess was found in the exposure, but the study did help improve constraints on dark matter-nucleus interactions for dark matter masses between 3 and 11 GeV c(-2) by as much as an order of magnitude.