Xenon-based detectors have become a central tool in rare-event physics, with liquid xenon playing a leading role in the search for dark matter and shaping a generation of ultra-low-background detector technologies. In this talk, I will survey the current landscape of xenon experiments through the lens of rare-event searches, with emphasis on the dark matter programs and the technical...
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment has been searching since 2021 for a form of dark matter known as weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs). LZ consists of a time projection chamber containing 7 tonnes of liquid xenon and is surrounded by a multi-layer veto to help reject backgrounds, and is located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. Recently, using a 5.7 tonne-year...
Despite overwhelming astronomical evidence for the existence of dark matter (DM), its fundamental nature remains one of the central open questions in modern physics. Owing to their excellent detection efficiency, scalability, and ultra-low background levels, dual-phase time projection chambers (TPCs) employing multi-tonne liquid xenon (LXe) targets are at the forefront of the search for...
The XEMIS2 medical imaging device is a liquid Xenon (LXe) time projection chambre operating as a Compton telescope installed at Nantes University Hospital, France. XEMIS2 has started its commissioning in 2025 thanks to the commitment of technical and research teams of Subatech Laboratory (Nantes, France). After an overview of the XEMIS2 installation, this talk will present the first operation...
PETALO (Positron Emission TOF Apparatus with Liquid xenOn) is a project that uses liquid xenon (LXe) as a scintillation medium, silicon photomultipliers as a readout and fast electronics to provide a significant improvement in PET-TOF technology. Liquid xenon allows one to build a continuous detector with a high stopping power for 511-keV gammas. In addition, SiPMs enable a fast and accurate...
Electroluminescence (EL) in liquid xenon is receiving renewed attention as a low-noise, proportional signal amplification mechanism for noble-liquid detectors. Compared to traditional gas-phase EL, liquid-phase EL enables more flexible detector geometries, efficient charge extraction, and alternative optical readout schemes for single-phase noble-liquid time projection chambers.
In this...
PandaX ( Particle and Astrophysical Xenon experiment), a large-scale liquid xenon dark matter detection project located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory, has provided a high-sensitivity experimental platform for dark matter searches through the iterative development of three generations of detectors since its launch in 2009. It adopts the two-phase xenon time projection chamber...
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Searches for neutrinoless double-beta decay (0νββ) represent one of the most promising avenues for uncovering new frontiers in particle physics, particularly in understanding the true nature of the neutrino. The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon TPC (NEXT) investigates 0νββ using a high-pressure Xenon time projection chamber. This technology offers excellent energy resolution and good imaging...
Next-generation liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) for WIMP dark matter searches aim to double their drift length compared to current detectors. This scale-up introduces not only mechanical and production challenges but also pushes into largely unexplored territory: the interplay between conductors, LXe, and high voltage (HV) in ultra-pure environments.
MOTION, a 70 kg LXe TPC...
With the increasing size of dual-phase liquid xenon time projection chambers (LXe TPCs), several technological challenges arise, in particular concerning the scalability and stability of high-voltage electrodes. Large-area electrodes are increasingly exposed to mechanical sagging, electrostatic distortions, and backgrounds from spurious electron emission.
The XeLab project addresses these...
The XENONnT experiment, operating at the INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, continues its search for rare events using a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) containing $5.9\,\text{t}$ of xenon inside the detector cryostat. Recent results include new limits on WIMP dark matter based on a $3.1\,\text{tonne}$-year exposure, as well as the first indication of solar $^{8}\text{B}$ neutrino...
Decades of innovation have established xenon TPCs as a leading detector technology in the search for new physics in the form of Majorana neutrinos and WIMP-like dark matter. Searches for both phenomena have probed significant parameter space but have yet to make a discovery. To further augment sensitivity, new experiments will require greater xenon masses. While these two new physics channels...
Some of the most sensitive detectors used for low-background searches, such as dark matter and neutrinoless double beta decay, are liquid xenon-based detectors. These require stringent background discrimination and mitigation, and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) present a promising alternative to traditional photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) due to their lower levels of radioactivity. In order to...
Dark matter constitutes most of the universe's mass, yet its interactions remain elusive due to its weak coupling to the visible spectrum, necessitating innovative detection methods. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), are a promising dark matter candidate, and are theorized to interact with standard model particles via nuclear recoiling. At the forefront of investigating this...
To address the challenges of the "neutrino fog" in both high-mass and sub-GeV dark matter searches, a new cryogenic test facility is being commissioned at Queen’s University. This facility validates innovative technologies for the future Argo (300-tonne LAr) and DarkSide-LowMass experiments.
A primary focus is the characterization of digital Silicon Photomultipliers, developed by the...
Neutrinoless double beta decay (0𝜈𝛽𝛽) detection would shed light on whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac particles, however these measurements necessitate a high energy resolution. Xe-136 double beta decay into Ba-136 is a prime candidate for 0𝜈𝛽𝛽 detection, understanding the scintillation light this decay produces enhances 0𝜈𝛽𝛽 detection capabilities. Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) and...
The MainzTPC is an experimental dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) dedicated to the study of scintillation and ionization processes in liquid xenon (LXe) for low-energy electronic and nuclear recoils. It has been designed to be the primary target in Compton and neutron scattering experiments to measure recoil energies in LXe down to $1$ keV.
To improve position resolution in $x$...
Barium tagging (“Ba-tagging”) has the potential to become a defining technology for next-generation liquid and gas xenon time projection chambers searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) in $^{136}$Xe. The successful identification of the $\beta\beta$-decay daughter $^{136}$Ba at the reconstructed decay site would provide an event-by-event confirmation of the parent...
The MEG II experiment has collected physics data since 2021 to search for the lepton-flavor-violating muon decay, $\mu^+ \to e^+\gamma$, with a target sensitivity of $6 \times 10^{-14}$. The latest result, based on the first two years of data, has achieved the most sensitive search to date. No signal excess was found, and the most stringent upper limit on the branching ratio was set to $1.5...
The PIONEER experiment aims to perform precision tests of lepton flavor universality through measurements of rare pain decays using a stopped-pion technique. Achieving the targeted sensitivity requires excellent control of systematic effects, high energy and timing resolution, and robust pile-up rejection under high-rate conditions.
Liquid xenon calorimetry offers attractive performance...
Underground liquid xenon time-projection chambers (TPCs) offer a low-background environment, a key requirement to enable sensitive searches for possible dark matter interactions. Additionally, these same conditions make xenon TPCs excellent for the detection of solar neutrino events down to and even below the ~1 keV electron-equivalent scale. In this talk I describe the program of solar...
Searched for over half a century with detectors of increasing size and sensitivity, neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay offers a means to explore whether neutrinos are massive Majorana fermions and thus a portal between matter and antimatter. nEXO is a five-tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber (LXe TPC) to search for 0νββ decay of xenon-136 with a half-life sensitivity >10^28 years....
Xenon, in both gaseous and liquid phases, is an excellent target material for rare-event searches due to its excellent scintillation properties. While ultraviolet (UV) scintillation in xenon is well established and widely exploited in current detectors, scintillation in the infrared (IR) remains largely unexplored. This contribution presents recent progress in the characterization of xenon IR...
The DEAP-3600 experiment at SNOLAB utilizes 3.3 tonnes of liquid argon to search for dark matter and rare nuclear processes. Benefiting from stable, low-background operation, the experiment is expanding its physics reach through advanced analysis and hardware improvements.
This talk presents the WIMP search status using the Profile Likelihood Ratio method. Leveraging 790.8 live-days of...
Digital SiPMs are a technology were single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) and their CMOS readout electronics are on the same chip. This approach reduces system complexity, which improves radio purity, and allowing the readout to be tailored to the experiment. The SPAD quality improved in recent years to the point where their performance in terms of dark count rate, quantum efficiency and...
The AXEL (A Xenon ElectroLuminescence) experiment aims to search for neutrinoless double beta decay ($0\nu\beta\beta$) using a high-pressure xenon gas time projection chamber (TPC).
The detector features a unique ionization detection called the Electroluminescence Light Collection Cell (ELCC), which provides high energy resolution and topological information by converting ionization...
XLZD will feature a next-generation dual-phase liquid xenon (LXe) time projection chamber (TPC) with a 60–80 tonne active target. Building on the experience made with the LZ and XENONnT experiments, the detector scales the current technology by more than a factor of 10 in mass. This scale-up will enable searches for weakly interacting massive particles down to the neutrino fog, as well as...
The XLZD (XENON-LZ-DARWIN) collaboration is developing the next-generation observatory for dark matter, neutrino and rare-event physics. The detector will use a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) with 60 tonnes of active xenon in a volume of approximately 3 meters in both height and diameter.
Xenoscope, at the University of Zurich, is a vertical demonstrator built to address the...
Xenon and argon have historically been among the most successful target materials for dark matter searches using direct‑detection experiments in underground laboratories. Xenon benefits from its larger atomic size, while the lighter argon nucleus allows for larger recoil energies when struck by a GeV‑scale dark matter particle, particularly in experiments that measure charge or nucleation. To...
The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) employs large liquid argon time projection chambers (LArTPCs) to address key questions in neutrino physics and astroparticle physics. Efficient detection of scintillation light is essential for event timing, triggering, and low-energy physics, motivating studies of liquid argon doped with xenon as a wavelength-shifting and light-enhancing medium....
The DEAP-3600 experiment is one of the world’s most sensitive liquid-argon (LAr) dark-matter search, operating 2 km underground at SNOLAB with a 3.3-tonne LAr target. The experiment continues to collect WIMP-search data and will resume extended data acquisition following completion of its current detector-upgrade campaign. In this talk, I will present a detailed overview of the recently...
The search for neutrinoless double‑beta decay (0νββ) remains one of the most compelling frontiers in contemporary physics, offering a unique path to uncovering the Majorana nature of neutrinos and potentially providing an avenue towards explaining the observed matter dominance in our Universe. One of the most compelling elements for this search is xenon-136, deployed in a time-projection...
