The XENON collaboration is working towards directly detecting dark matter particles in our Milky Way using a dual-phase liquid xenon detector. This technology combines a large mass of several tons with a low energy threshold at the keV scale and an ultra-low background. The XENONnT detector is currently operating at the Gran Sasso underground National Laboratory in Italy. Its objectives are to test the hypothesis of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) as a form of dark matter and to search for a number of rare event processes. These include measuring solar neutrinos over coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and neutrino-electron scattering, as well as searching for neutrinoless double beta decay in 136Xe, among others. Over the past two decades, XENON has set world-leading exclusion limits on the possible interaction of WIMPs with target nuclei.

The group members are responsible for the cleanliness of the detector and the photosensors that detect the scintillation light produced by particle interactions. Prior to the construction of XENONnT and its precursor experiment XENON1T, the group contributed to reducing the background of the experiment by conducting germanium screening and radon emanation measurements of the detector components. This helped to select the cleanest materials for construction. We are also very active in various aspects of data analysis.