The XENON1T excess: axions, background, or fluke?

by Dr Jelle Aalbers (SU)

Tuesday 23 Jun 2020, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

Fysikum equipment

zoom link: TBA

 

XENON1T, the world's most sensitive dark matter detector, found a ~3.5 sigma excess of low energy (2-5 keV) electronic recoil events. This could be a first hint of axions produced in the sun, a nonzero neutrino magnetic moment, or absorption of bosonic dark matter. However, more mundane explanations remain possible, most importantly a trace of tritium contaminating the detector. I will summarize the result, and we will discuss the evidence in favor of these different interpretations.