Projected WIMP Sensitivity of the XENONnT Dark Matter Experiment

Understand

XENONnT is a dark matter direct detection experiment, utilizing 5.9 t of instrumented liquid xenon, located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso.

• In this work, we predict the experimental background and project the sensitivity of XENONnT to the detection of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).
• The expected average differential background rate in the energy region of interest, corresponding to (1, 13) keV and (4, 50) keV for electronic and nuclear recoils, amounts to $12.3 \pm 0.6$ (keV t y)$^{-1}$ and $(2.2\pm 0.5)\times 10^{-3}$ (keV t y)$^{-1}$, respectively, in a 4 t fiducial mass.
• We compute unified confidence intervals using the profile construction method, in order to ensure proper coverage.