Double-Weak Decays of ${}^{124}$Xe and ${}^{136}$Xe in the XENON1T and XENONnT Experiments

Abstract

We present results on the search for double-electron capture ($2\nu \text{ECEC}$) of ${}^{124}$Xe and neutrinoless double-$\beta$ decay ($0\nu \beta \beta$) of ${}^{136}$Xe in XENON1T. We consider captures from the K- up to the N-shell in the $2\nu \text{ECEC}$ signal model and measure a total half-life of $T_{1/2}^{2\nu \text{ECEC}}=(1.1\pm 0.2_{\text{stat}}\pm 0.1_{\text{sys}})\times 10^{22}\text{yr}$ with a $0.87\text{kg}\times \text{yr}$ isotope exposure. The statistical significance of the signal is $7.0\sigma$. We use XENON1T data with $36.16\text{kg}\times \text{yr}$ of ${}^{136}$Xe exposure to search for $0\nu \beta \beta$. We find no evidence of a signal and set a lower limit on the half-life of $T_{1/2}^{0\nu \beta \beta }>1.2\times 10^{24}\text{yr}\text{at}90\%\text{CL}$. This is the best result from a dark matter detector without an enriched target to date. We also report projections on the sensitivity of XENONnT to $0\nu \beta \beta$. Assuming a $275\text{kg}\times \text{yr}$ ${}^{136}$Xe exposure, the expected sensitivity is $T_{1/2}^{0\nu \beta \beta }>2.1\times 10^{25}\text{yr}\text{at}90\%\text{CL}$, corresponding to an effective Majorana mass range of $⟨m_{\beta \beta }⟩<(0.19-0.59){\text{eV/c}}^2$.

arXiv comment23 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables, version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C

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