Low scale string theory benchmarks for hidden photon dark matter interpretations of the XENON1T anomaly

Abstract

An excess of low-energy electronic recoil events over known backgrounds was recently observed in the XENON1T detector, where 285 events are observed compared to an expected $232\\ifmmode\\pm\\else\\textpm\\fi{}15$ events from the background-only fit to the data in the energy range 1--7 keV. This could be due to the beta decay of an unexpected tritium component, or possibly to new physics. One plausible new physics explanation for the excess is absorption of hidden photon dark matter relics with mass around 2.8 keV and kinetic mixing of about ${10}^{\\ensuremath{-}15}$, which can also explain cooling excesses in horizontal-branch (HB) stars. Such small gauge boson masses and couplings can naturally arise from type-IIB low scale string theory. We provide a fit of the XENON1T excess in terms of a minimal low scale type-IIB string theory parameter space and present some benchmark points which provide a good fit to the data. It is also demonstrated how the required transformation properties of the massless spectrum are obtained in intersecting D-brane models.