Probing the Solar $^8$B Neutrino Fog with XENONnT

Abstract

We report a 3.3 $\sigma$ measurement of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering from solar $^8$B neutrinos using a 6.77 t$\times$yr exposure from the XENONnT experiment, inferring a solar $^8$B neutrino flux of $(5_{-2}^{+3})\times 10^6\,\mathrm{cm}^{-2}\mathrm{s}^{-1}$, consistent with previous measurements. In the presence of the $^8$B "neutrino fog", we find no evidence for light dark matter, and observe diminishing returns in sensitivity with increasing exposure. A 93% increase in exposure from the previous search improves the median sensitivity to 5 GeV/$c^2$ weakly interacting massive particles-nucleon cross section by 10%. The dataset was also used to measure the weak mixing angle at $\sim$ 0.02 GeV/$c$ momentum transfer and constrain physics beyond the Standard Model.