Search for dark matter particle interactions in an extended nuclear recoil energy window with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We report on a search for dark matter particles interacting with xenon nuclei in an exposure of 2.84 tonne-years with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. An extended nuclear recoil energy window up to approximately 270 keV enables searches for effective field theory and inelastic models of dark matter where high-energy recoils account for a larger fraction of the predicted recoil spectrum compared to the nominal spin independent interaction. We observe one event with characteristics consistent with a nuclear recoil of $248\pm23\,\mathrm{(stat)}\pm23\,\mathrm{(sys)}$ keV, in a region where the known background expectation is low. A profile likelihood ratio test finds tension with the background-only hypothesis at a global significance of 2.6$σ$ when accounting for look-elsewhere effects, with a maximum local significance of 3.4$σ$ across the models tested. We describe the analysis and event of interest, the background model used in the statistical inference, and detail several of the rare background topologies considered.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Akerib, D. S., Musalhi, A. K. Al, Almquist, B. J., Amarasinghe, C. S., Ames, A., Anderson, T., Angelides, N., Araújo, H. M., Armstrong, J. E., Arthurs, M., Baker, A., Balashov, S., Bang, J., Bargemann, J. W., Barillier, E. E., Bauer, D., Beattie, K., Beauchene, A., Benson, T. L., Bhatti, A., Biesiadzinski, T. P., Birch, H. J., Bishop, E., Blockinger, G. M., Boxer, B., Brew, C. A. J., Brás, P., Burdin, S., Carmona-Benitez, M. C., Carter, M., Chawla, A., Cherwinka, J. J., Chin, Y. T., Contreras, S., Converse, M. V., Coronel, R., Cottle, A., Coulson, C., Cox, G., Dahl, C. E., Darlington, I., Dave, S., Delgaudio, J., Desai, S., Dey, S., de Viveiros, L., Di Felice, L., Ding, C., Dobson, J. E. Y., Druszkiewicz, E., Dubey, S., Dunbar, C. L., Eriksen, S. R., Fayer, S., Fieldhouse, N., Fiorucci, S., Flaecher, H., Fraser, E. D., Fruth, T. M. A., Gaemers, P. W., Gaitskell, R. J., Geffre, A., Genovesi, J., Ghag, C., Ghamsari, J., Ghosh, A., Ghosh, S., Gibbons, R., Gokhale, S., Green, J., van der Grinten, M. G. D., Haiston, J. J., Hall, C. R., Hall, T., Hampp, R. N., Haselschwardt, S. J., Hernandez, M. A., Hertel, S. A., Homenides, G. J., Horn, M., Horoho, T., Huang, D. Q., Hulse, W., Hunt, D., Jacquet, E., James, R. S., Jenkins, K. R., Kaboth, A. C., Kamaha, A. C., Khaitan, D., Khazov, A., Kim, J., Kim, Y. D., Kodroff, D., Kong, Q. C., Korolkova, E. V., Kraus, H., Kravitz, S., Kreczko, L., Kudryavtsev, V. A., Lawes, C., Leon, E. B., Leonard, D. S., Lesko, K. T., Levy, C., Li, Z., Lin, J., Lindote, A., Lippincott, W. H., Long, J., Lopes, M. I., Lorenzon, W., Lu, C., Luitz, S., Ma, W., Mahajan, V., Majewski, P. A., Manalaysay, A., Mannino, R. L., Matheson, R. J., Maupin, C., McCarthy, M. E., McKinsey, D. N., McLaughlin, J., McLaughlin, J. B., Mitra, B., Mizrachi, E., Monzani, M. E., Morå, K., Morrison, E., Mount, B. J., Munski, J., Murdy, M., Murphy, A. St. J., Nelson, H. N., Neves, F., Nguyen, A., O'Brien, C. L., O'Shea, F. H., Olcina, I., Oliver-Mallory, K. C., Orpwood, J., Oyulmaz, K. Y, Palladino, K. J., Pannifer, N. J., Patton, S. J., Penning, B., Pereira, G., Peres, R., Perry, E., Pershing, T., Piepke, A., Poudel, S. S., Qie, Y., Reichenbacher, J., Rischbieter, G. R. C., Ritchey, E., Riyat, H. S., Rosero, R., Rowe, N. J., Rushton, T., Rynders, D., Saltão, S., Sargeant, I., Sazzad, A. B. M. R., Schnee, R. W., Sehr, G., Shafer, M. Severson B., Shaw, S., Sherman, L., Shi, K., Shutt, T., Silva, C., Sinev, G., Siniscalco, J., Softley-Brown, A. M., Solovov, V. N., Sorensen, P., Soria, J., Sumner, T. J., Szydagis, M., Tang, C. F., Thieme, K., Tiedt, D. R., Tovey, D. R., Tranter, J., Trask, M., Trengove, K., Twigg, B., Usón, A., Vaitkus, A. C., Valentino, O., Wang, A., Wang, J. J., Wang, Y., Weeldreyer, L., Whitis, T. J., Wild, K., Williams, M., Winnicki, J., Witherell, M. S., Wolf, L., Wolfs, F. L. H., Woodford, S., Woodward, D., Wright, C. J., Xia, Q., Xu, J., Xu, Y., Yeh, M., Yeum, D., Young, J., Zenger, H. D., Zha, W., Zhang, H., Zhang, T., Zhou, Y.
Institutions: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Brown University, University of California, Santa Barbara, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Zurich, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Imperial College London, University of Maryland, College Park, King's College London, University of Oxford, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Edinburgh, University at Albany, State University of New York, University of California, Davis, LIP - Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics, University of Coimbra, University of Liverpool, Pennsylvania State University, Royal Holloway University of London, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Rochester, University College London, Northwestern University, South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, University of Bristol, The University of Sydney, University of California, Berkeley, Brookhaven National Laboratory, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, University of Michigan, University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Alabama, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Melbourne, Institute for Basic Science, University of Sheffield, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Black Hills State University, Purdue University West Lafayette
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G1088636562, G1229526393, G1286236842, G14554683, G180393771, G1863003419, G2145270357, G2371548206, G241279073, G2852993957, G303061748, G3043309968, G3083819904, G3457116902, IMPROVING LZ'S SENSITIVITY TO DARK MATTER AND NEUTRINOS NEAR THRESHOLD WITH MACHINE LEARNING, G357145406, G419881185, G4273027547, G42916606, G4354484304, G4501827968, G4654690619, G4675023950, G4836177623, G495301720, G498139845, G5021320049, G5570207115, G574795485, G5765906131, G616361084, G6289945827, G6652958823, G6760775034, LUX-ZEPLIN DATA ANALYSIS AND LOW BACKGROUND ASSAY FOR FUTURE RARE-SEARCH EXPERIMENTS, G7463374569, G759921648, G7786045000, G7894171531, G8382000481, G8436544914, G872144517, G935921991, G969889393, G97770923
OpenAlex ID: W7207743737