Light vector mediators facing XENON1T data

Abstract

Recently the XENON1T collaboration has released new results on searches for new physics in low-energy electronic recoils. The data shows an excess over background in the low-energy tail, particularly pronounced at about $2-3$ keV. With an exposure of $0.65$ tonne-year, large detection efficiency and energy resolution, the detector is sensitive as well to solar neutrino backgrounds, with the most prominent contribution given by $pp$ neutrinos. We investigate whether such signal can be explained in terms of new neutrino interactions with leptons mediated by a light vector particle. We find that the excess is consistent with this interpretation for vector masses below $\lesssim 0.1$ MeV. The region of parameter space probed by the XENON1T data is competitive with constraints from laboratory experiments, in particular GEMMA, Borexino and TEXONO. However we point out a severe tension with astrophysical bounds and cosmological observations.

6 pages, 4 figures. V3: Few typos corrected and one reference added. Matches version published in PLB

References in corpus (3)

• First observation of two-neutrino double electron capture in ${}^{124}$Xe with XENON1T
• Model Independent Bounds on Magnetic Moments of Majorana Neutrinos
• Chameleon Vector Bosons

Cited by in corpus (4)

• XENON1T signal from transition neutrino magnetic moments
• One-loop running of dimension-six Higgs-neutrino operators and implications of a large neutrino dipole moment
• Solar Neutrino Scattering with Electron into Massive Sterile Neutrino
• Explaining The XENON1T Excess With Light Goldstini Dark Matter