Searching for a Solar Relaxion or Scalar Particle with XENON1T and LUX


  Oz Davidi [1]  ,  Ranny Budnik [1]  ,  Hyungjin Kim [1]  ,  Gilad Perez [1]  ,  Nadav Priel [1,2]  
[1] Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel
[2] Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA

We consider liquid xenon dark matter detectors for searching a light scalar particle produced in the solar core, specifically one that couples to electrons. Through its interaction with the electrons, the scalar particle can be produced in the Sun, mainly through Bremsstrahlung process, and subsequently it is absorbed by liquid xenon atoms, leaving prompt scintillation light and ionization events. Using the latest experimental results of XENON1T and Large Underground Xenon, we place bounds on the coupling between electrons and a light scalar as gφee < 8 × 10^{−15} from S1-only analysis, and as gφee < 2 × 10^{−15} from S2-only analysis. These can be interpreted as bounds on the mixing angle with the Higgs boson, sinθ < 3 × 10−{9} (7 × 10^{−10}), for the case of a relaxion that couples to the electrons via this mixing. The bounds are a factor few weaker than the strongest indirect bound inferred from stellar evolution considerations.