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1. Exploring the keV-scale physics potential of CUORE

   https://doi.org/10.1103/fv25-bfgx  

   Adams, D Q; Alduino, C; Alfonso, K; Armatol, A; Avignone, F T; Azzolini, O; Bari, G; Bellini, F; Benato, G; Beretta, M; et al (January 2026, Physical Review D)

   We present the analysis techniques developed to explore the keV-scale energy region of the Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) experiment, based on more than 2 metric ton yr of data collected over five years. By prioritizing a stricter selection over a larger exposure, we are able to optimize data selection for thresholds at 10 keV and 3 keV with 691 kg yr and 11 kg yr of data, respectively. We study how the performance varies among the 988-detector array with different detector characteristics and data-taking conditions. We achieve an average baseline resolution of $2.54\pm 0.14\mathrm{keV}$ FWHM and $1.18\pm 0.02\mathrm{keV}$ FWHM for the data selection at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. The analysis methods employed reduce the overall background by about an order of magnitude, reaching $2.06\pm 0.05\mathrm{counts}/\left(\mathrm{keV}\mathrm{kg}\mathrm{days}\right)$ and $16\pm 2\mathrm{counts}/\left(\mathrm{keV}\mathrm{kg}\mathrm{days}\right)$ at the thresholds of 10 keV and 3 keV. We evaluate for the first time the near-threshold reconstruction efficiencies of the CUORE experiment, and find these to be $50\pm 2\%$ and $26\pm 4\%$ at 10 keV and 3 keV, respectively. This analysis provides crucial insights into rare decay studies, new physics searches, and keV-scale background modeling with CUORE. We demonstrate that ton-scale cryogenic calorimeters can operate across a wide energy range, from keV to MeV, establishing their scalability as versatile detectors for rare event and dark matter physics. These findings also inform the optimization of future large mass cryogenic calorimeters to enhance the sensitivity to low-energy phenomena. 

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2. Effective field theory and inelastic dark matter results from XENON1T

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.112017  

   Aprile, E; Abe, K; Agostini, F; Ahmed_Maouloud, S; Althueser, L; Andrieu, B; Angelino, E; Angevaare, J R; Antochi, V C; Antón_Martin, D; et al (June 2024, Physical Review D)

   In this work, we expand on the XENON1T nuclear recoil searches to study the individual signals of dark matter interactions from operators up to dimension eight in a chiral effective field theory (ChEFT) and a model of inelastic dark matter (iDM). We analyze data from two science runs of the XENON1T detector totaling $1\mathrm{t}\times \mathrm{yr}$ exposure. For these analyses, we extended the region of interest from $[4.9,40.9]{\mathrm{keV}}_{\mathrm{NR}}$ to $[4.9,54.4]{\mathrm{keV}}_{\mathrm{NR}}$ to enhance our sensitivity for signals that peak at nonzero energies. We show that the data are consistent with the background-only hypothesis, with a small background overfluctuation observed peaking between 20 and $50{\mathrm{keV}}_{\mathrm{NR}}$ , resulting in a maximum local discovery significance of $1.7\sigma$ for the $\mathrm{Vector}\otimes {\text{Vector}}_{\text{strange}}$ ChEFT channel for a dark matter particle of $70\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ and $1.8\sigma$ for an iDM particle of $50\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ with a mass splitting of $100\mathrm{keV}/c^2$ . For each model, we report 90% confidence level upper limits. We also report upper limits on three benchmark models of dark matter interaction using ChEFT where we investigate the effect of isospin-breaking interactions. We observe rate-driven cancellations in regions of the isospin-breaking couplings, leading to up to 6 orders of magnitude weaker upper limits with respect to the isospin-conserving case. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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3. XENONnT analysis: Signal reconstruction, calibration, and event selection

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.062006  

   Aprile, E; Aalbers, J; Abe, K; Ahmed_Maouloud, S; Althueser, L; Andrieu, B; Angelino, E; Angevaare, J R; Antón_Martin, D; Arneodo, F; et al (March 2025, Physical Review D)

   The XENONnT experiment, located at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso, Italy, features a 5.9 tonne liquid xenon time projection chamber surrounded by an instrumented neutron veto, all of which is housed within a muon veto water tank. Because of extensive shielding and advanced purification to mitigate natural radioactivity, an exceptionally low background level of $(15.8\pm 1.3)\mathrm{events}/(\mathrm{tonne}·\mathrm{year}·\mathrm{keV})$ in the (1,30) keV region is reached in the inner part of the time projection chamber. XENONnT is, thus, sensitive to a wide range of rare phenomena related to dark matter and neutrino interactions, both within and beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, with a focus on the direct detection of dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles. From May 2021 to December 2021, XENONnT accumulated data in rare-event search mode with a total exposure of one $\mathrm{tonne}·\mathrm{year}$ . This paper provides a detailed description of the signal reconstruction methods, event selection procedure, and detector response calibration, as well as an overview of the detector performance in this time frame. This work establishes the foundational framework for the “blind analysis” methodology we are using when reporting XENONnT physics results. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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4. First Search for Light Dark Matter in the Neutrino Fog with XENONnT

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.134.111802  

   Aprile, E; Aalbers, J; Abe, K; Ahmed_Maouloud, S; Althueser, L; Andrieu, B; Angelino, E; Antón_Martin, D; Arneodo, F; Baudis, L; et al (March 2025, Physical Review Letters)

   We search for dark matter (DM) with a mass $[3,12]\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ using an exposure of $3.51\mathrm{tonne}\hspace{0.17em}\mathrm{year}$ with the XENONnT experiment. We consider spin-independent DM-nucleon interactions mediated by a heavy or light mediator, spin-dependent DM-neutron interactions, momentum-dependent DM scattering, and mirror DM. Using a lowered energy threshold compared to the previous weakly interacting massive particle search, a blind analysis of [0.5, 5.0] keV nuclear recoil events reveals no significant signal excess over the background. XENONnT excludes spin-independent DM-nucleon cross sections $>2.5\times {10}^{-45}{\mathrm{cm}}^2$ at 90% confidence level for $6\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$ DM. In the considered mass range, the DM sensitivity approaches the “neutrino fog,” the limitation where neutrinos produce a signal that is indistinguishable from that of light DM-xenon nucleus scattering. Published by the American Physical Society2025 

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5. Measurement of Angular Coefficients of $\overline{B}\to D^{*}\ell {\overline{\nu }}_{\ell }$ : Implications for $\left|V_{cb}\right|$ and Tests of Lepton Flavor Universality

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.131801  

   Prim, M T; Bernlochner, F; Metzner, F; Aihara, H; Asner, D M; Aushev, T; Ayad, R; Babu, V; Banerjee, Sw; Behera, P; et al (September 2024, Physical Review Letters)

   We measure the complete set of angular coefficients $J_i$ for exclusive $\overline{B}\to D^{*}\ell {\overline{\nu }}_{\ell }$ decays ( $\ell =e$ , $\mu$ ). Our analysis uses the full $711{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ Belle dataset with hadronic tag-side reconstruction. The results allow us to extract the form factors describing the $\overline{B}\to D^{*}$ transition and the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $\left|V_{\mathrm{cb}}\right|$ . Using recent lattice QCD calculations for the hadronic form factors, we find $\left|V_{\mathrm{cb}}\right|=(40.7\pm 0.7)\times {10}^{-3}$ using the Boyd-Grinstein-Lebed parametrization, compatible with determinations from inclusive semileptonic decays. We search for lepton flavor universality violation as a function of the hadronic recoil parameter $w$ and investigate the differences of the electron and muon angular distributions. We find no deviation from standard model expectations. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

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