Search for inelastic scattering of WIMP dark matter in XENON1T
E. Aprile, J. Aalbers, F. Agostini, M. Alfonsi, L. Althueser, F. D. Amaro, Sophia Andaloro, E. Angelino, J. R. Angevaare, V. C. Antochi, F. Arneodo, L. Baudis, B. Bauermeister, L. Bellagamba, M. L. Benabderrahmane, A. Brown, A. Brown, S. Bruenner, G. Bruno, R. Budnik, C. Capelli, J. M. R. Cardoso, D. Cichon, B. Cimmino, M. Clark, D. Coderre, A. P. Colijn, J. M. Conrad, Jacques Cuenca, J. P. Cussonneau, M. P. Decowski, A. Depoian, P. Di Gangi, A. Di Giovanni, R. Di Stefano, S. Diglio, A. Elykov, A. D. Ferella, W. Fulgione, P. Gaemers, R. Gaïor, M. Galloway, F. Gao, L. Grandi, C. Hils, K. Hiraide, L. Hoetzsch, J. Howlett, M. Iacovacci, Y. Itow, F. Joerg, Natsuko Kato, S. Kazama, M. Kobayashi, G. Koltman, A. Kopec, H. Landsman, R. F. Lang, L. J. Levinson, S. Liang, Q. Lin, S. Lindemann, M. Lindner, F. Lombardi, J. Long, J. A. M. Lopes, Y. Ma, C. Macolino, J. Mahlstedt, A. Mancuso, L. Manenti, A. Manfredini, Fabrizio Marignetti, T. Marrodán Undagoitia, K. Martens, J. Masbou, D. Masson, S. Mastroianni, M. Messina, K. Miuchi, K. Mizukoshi, A. Molinario, K. Morå, S. Moriyama, Y. Mosbacher, M. Murra, J. Naganoma, K. Ni, U. Oberlack, K. Odgers, J. Palacio, B. Pelssers, R. Peres, J. Pienaar, M. Pierre, V. Pizzella, G. Plante, Jing-Zhao Qi, J. Qin, D. Ramírez García
Abstract
We report the results of a search for the inelastic scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) in the XENON1T dark matter experiment. Scattering off $^{129}\mathrm{Xe}$ is the most sensitive probe of inelastic WIMP interactions, with a signature of a 39.6 keV deexcitation photon detected simultaneously with the nuclear recoil. Using an exposure of 0.83 tonne-years, we find no evidence of inelastic WIMP scattering with a significance of more than $2\ensuremath{\sigma}$. A profile-likelihood ratio analysis is used to set upper limits on the cross section of WIMP-nucleus interactions. We exclude new parameter space for WIMPs heavier than $100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{c}}^{2}$, with the strongest upper limit of $3.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}39}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$ for $130\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/{\mathrm{c}}^{2}$ WIMPs at 90% confidence level.