The XENONnT collaboration announced today the first measurement of low-energy nuclear recoils from solar neutrinos, at the IDM conference in L'Aquila. These recoils are caused by neutrinos produced by nuclear reactions in the Sun, particularly from Bore-8. XENONnT uses a time-projection chamber containing 5.9 tonnes of liquid xenon to detect rare interactions. Installed at the Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) in Italy, it tracks dark matter with an ultra-low background. Detection of solar neutrinos via coherent elastic scattering on xenon nuclei (CEvNS) was carried out over a two-year period, with a total exposure of 3.5 ton-years. The results showed an excess of events consistent with a Bore-8 solar neutrino signal, with a statistical significance of 2.7 sigma, or a 0.35% probability that this signal was due to background noise. This measurement is significant as it represents the first CEvNS observation with solar neutrinos and marks a new chapter in the direct detection of dark matter. XENONnT anticipates future discoveries as it continues to accumulate data. For more information, please visit https://xenonexperiment.org/

More information about the Xenon team research at Subatech involved in the collaboration