Response-suggestion to The XENON1T excess: an overlooked dark matter signature?

TL;DR

This paper proposes analyzing the time distribution of XENON1T data to investigate planetary focusing effects as a potential overlooked signature of dark matter streams, which could explain the observed excess.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea of examining planetary dependence in dark matter signals to identify a possible direct detection signature.

Findings

Planetary focusing could influence dark matter detection signals.

Analysis of time-stamped data might reveal planetary correlations.

Current data releases are needed for further investigation.

Abstract

The main alternatives of the recent XENON1T observation are solar axions, neutrino magnetic moment and tritium. In this short note we suggest to crosscheck whether the observation is related or not to dark matter (DM) streams, by searching for planetary dependence of the observed excess. If such a correlation is derived, this hint (<3.5sigma) can become the overlooked direct DM discovery. To do this it is necessary to analyze the time distribution of all the XENON1T data, and in particular the electronic events with their time stamp and energy. Notably, the velocities of the dark sector allow for planetary focusing effects towards the earth either by a single celestial body or combined by the whole solar system. Surprisingly, as yet this possibility has not been applied in the field of direct dark matter search, even though DM velocities fit-in well planetary gravitational lensing effects. The widely used signature of a direct dark matter search needs to be redefined, while, with luck, such an analysis might confirm or exclude the solar origin of the observed excess. Therefore, we suggest that XENON1T and DAMA release the data.