Probing Solar Chameleons with XENONnT Ionization-Only Data

Abstract

Screened scalar fields provide a possible connection between dark energy and laboratory-scale new physics while remaining compatible with existing fifth-force constraints. Solar production offers a direct probe of these models, and ionization-only measurements extend the sensitivity of liquid-xenon detectors into the sub-keV regime. We present the first search for solar chameleons using low-energy S2-only data, based on the 7.83 tonne-year XENONnT ionization-only data set. The predicted electronic-recoil spectrum is folded through the run-dependent detector response and tested directly in corrected-S2 (cS2) space. A joint binned likelihood combines the seven cS2 bins of science runs SR0, SR1, and SR2. We sample the five-dimensional parameter space $\{\beta_e,\beta_\gamma,M_e,\Lambda,n\}$ and derive posterior constraints on the conformal and disformal electron couplings. The data extend the recoil-energy reach to approximately $0.04~{\rm keV}_{ee}$, where the few-electron detector response and instrumental backgrounds must be modeled explicitly. In the disformal-dominated regime, the result is expressed in terms of $\beta_{\rm eff}\equiv\beta_\gamma({\rm eV}/M_e)^4$. We obtain the upper limit $\log_{10}\beta_{\rm eff}<-3.64$. Although the present analysis reaches a lower energy threshold than our previous XENONnT electronic-recoil analysis, the resulting constraint is weaker, primarily because the disformal absorption rate decreases rapidly toward low recoil energies, where the background rate also becomes larger. This analysis establishes low-energy ionization data as a new experimental channel for testing solar chameleons and screened dark-energy models.