Investigating the XENON1T Low-Energy Electronic Recoil Excess Using NEST
Autor: | Matthew Szydagis, A. Kamaha, G. R. C. Rischbieter, N. Parveen, C. Levy, GM Blockinger |
---|---|
Jazyk: | angličtina |
Rok vydání: | 2020 |
Předmět: |
Physics
Particle physics Physics - Instrumentation and Detectors 010308 nuclear & particles physics Dark matter FOS: Physical sciences Sigma Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) 01 natural sciences High Energy Physics - Experiment High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) Low energy Recoil 0103 physical sciences Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) 010306 general physics Axion Nuclear Experiment Energy (signal processing) |
Zdroj: | Physical Review |
Popis: | The search for dark matter, the missing mass of the Universe, is one of the most active fields of study within particle physics. The XENON1T experiment recently observed a 3.5$\sigma$ excess potentially consistent with dark matter, or with solar axions. Here, we will use the Noble Element Simulation Technique (NEST) software to simulate the XENON1T detector, reproducing the excess. We utilize different detector efficiency and energy reconstruction models, but they primarily impact sub-keV energies and cannot explain the XENON1T excess. However, using NEST, we can reproduce their excess in multiple, unique ways, most easily via the addition of 31$\pm$11 $^{37}Ar$ decays. Furthermore, this results in new, modified background models, reducing the significance of the excess to $\le2.2\sigma$ at least using non-Profile Likelihood Ratio (PLR) methods. This is independent confirmation that the excess is a real effect, but potentially explicable by known physics. Many cross-checks of our $^{37}Ar$ hypothesis are presented. Comment: published version |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
Externí odkaz: |