Challenging Spontaneous Quantum Collapse with the XENONnT Dark Matter Detector

Y. Mosbacher; Barbara Paetsch; Jacques Pienaar; Micha Weiss

doi:10.1103/2jm3-4976

Challenging Spontaneous Quantum Collapse with the XENONnT Dark Matter Detector

, Y. Mosbacher
, Barbara Paetsch
, Jacques Pienaar
, Micha Weiss

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We report on the search for x-ray radiation as predicted from dynamical quantum collapse with low-energy electronic recoil data in the energy range of 1-140 keV from the first science run of the XENONnT dark matter detector. Spontaneous radiation is an unavoidable effect of dynamical collapse models, which were introduced as a possible solution to the long-standing measurement problem in quantum mechanics. The analysis utilizes a model that for the first time accounts for cancellation effects in the emitted spectrum, which arise in the x-ray range due to the opposing electron-proton charges in xenon atoms. New world-leading limits on the free parameters of the Markovian continuous spontaneous localization and Diósi-Penrose models are set, improving previous best constraints by two orders of magnitude and a factor of five, respectively. For the strength and correlation length of the continuous spontaneous localization model, values in the originally proposed parameter ranges are experimentally excluded for the first time.

Original language	English
Article number	120201
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	136
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/2jm3-4976
Publication status	Published - 27 Mar 2026

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, German Ministry for Education and Research, Max Planck Gesellschaft, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Helmholtz Association, Dutch Research Council (NWO), Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, Weizmann Institute of Science, Binational Science Foundation, Région des Pays de la Loire, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Kavli Foundation, JSPS Kakenhi, JST FOREST Program, and ERAN in Japan, Tsinghua University Initiative Scientific Research Program, UZH Postdoc Grant (Grant No. FK-24-101), DIM-ACAV+ Région Ile-de-France, and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. This project has received funding/support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 860881-HIDDeN. C. C., K. P. and S. M. acknowledge of the John Templeton Foundation, Grant 62099. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. C. C. acknowledge support from the Foundational Questions Institute and Fetzer Franklin Fund, a donor advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation (Grants No. FQXi-RFP-CPW-2008 and No. FQXi-MGB-2011), and from the INFN (VIP). C. C. benefited from the EU COST Actions CA23115 and CA23130. K. P. acknowledges support from the Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi—Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche “Enrico Fermi” (Open Problems in Quantum Mechanics project). We gratefully acknowledge support for provision of computing and data-processing resources of the Open Science Pool and the European Grid Initiative, at the following computing centers: the CNRS/IN2P3 (Lyon—France), the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative, the Nikhef Data-Processing Facility (Amsterdam—Netherlands), tfhe INFN-CNAF (Bologna—Italy), the San Diego Supercomputer Center (San Diego—USA) and the Enrico Fermi Institute (Chicago—USA). We acknowledge the support of the Research Computing Center (RCC) at The University of Chicago for providing computing resources for data analysis. We thank the INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso for hosting and supporting the XENON project.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

General Physics and Astronomy

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title = "Challenging Spontaneous Quantum Collapse with the XENONnT Dark Matter Detector",

abstract = "We report on the search for x-ray radiation as predicted from dynamical quantum collapse with low-energy electronic recoil data in the energy range of 1-140 keV from the first science run of the XENONnT dark matter detector. Spontaneous radiation is an unavoidable effect of dynamical collapse models, which were introduced as a possible solution to the long-standing measurement problem in quantum mechanics. The analysis utilizes a model that for the first time accounts for cancellation effects in the emitted spectrum, which arise in the x-ray range due to the opposing electron-proton charges in xenon atoms. New world-leading limits on the free parameters of the Markovian continuous spontaneous localization and Di{\'o}si-Penrose models are set, improving previous best constraints by two orders of magnitude and a factor of five, respectively. For the strength and correlation length of the continuous spontaneous localization model, values in the originally proposed parameter ranges are experimentally excluded for the first time.",

author = "E. Aprile and J. Aalbers and K. Abe and \{Ahmed Maouloud\}, S. and L. Althueser and B. Andrieu and E. Angelino and \{Ant{\'o}n Martin\}, D. and Armbruster, \{S. R.\} and F. Arneodo and L. Baudis and M. Bazyk and L. Bellagamba and R. Biondi and A. Bismark and K. Boese and R. Budnik and P. Kavrigin and H. Landsman and L. Levinson and Y. Mosbacher and Barbara Paetsch and Jacques Pienaar and Micha Weiss",

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AU - Andrieu, B.

AU - Angelino, E.

AU - Antón Martin, D.

AU - Armbruster, S. R.

AU - Arneodo, F.

AU - Baudis, L.

AU - Bazyk, M.

AU - Bellagamba, L.

AU - Biondi, R.

AU - Bismark, A.

AU - Boese, K.

AU - Budnik, R.

AU - Kavrigin, P.

AU - Landsman, H.

AU - Levinson, L.

AU - Mosbacher, Y.

AU - Paetsch, Barbara

AU - Pienaar, Jacques

AU - Weiss, Micha

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AB - We report on the search for x-ray radiation as predicted from dynamical quantum collapse with low-energy electronic recoil data in the energy range of 1-140 keV from the first science run of the XENONnT dark matter detector. Spontaneous radiation is an unavoidable effect of dynamical collapse models, which were introduced as a possible solution to the long-standing measurement problem in quantum mechanics. The analysis utilizes a model that for the first time accounts for cancellation effects in the emitted spectrum, which arise in the x-ray range due to the opposing electron-proton charges in xenon atoms. New world-leading limits on the free parameters of the Markovian continuous spontaneous localization and Diósi-Penrose models are set, improving previous best constraints by two orders of magnitude and a factor of five, respectively. For the strength and correlation length of the continuous spontaneous localization model, values in the originally proposed parameter ranges are experimentally excluded for the first time.

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Challenging Spontaneous Quantum Collapse with the XENONnT Dark Matter Detector

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