Light new physics in XENON1T

We examine the recently reported low-energy electron recoil spectrum observed at the XENON1T underground dark matter direct detection experiment, in the context of new interactions with solar neutrinos. In particular we show that scalar and vector mediators with masses less than or similar to 50 keV coupled to leptons could already leave a visible signature in the XENON1T experiment, similar to the observed peak below 7 keV. This signals that dark matter detectors are already competing with neutrino scattering experiments such as GEMMA, CHARM-II and Borexino. If these results from XENON1T are interpreted as a new signal of such physics, the parameters which fit the excess face challenges from astrophysics which seem very difficult to overcome. If they are rather viewed as a constraint on new couplings, they herald the start of an era of novel precise probes of physics beyond the Standard Model with dark matter detectors.