Cosmic ray boosted dark matter with momentum dependent interactions can explain the LZ 248 keV event
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The LZ experiment has recently reported an observation of a single event with characteristics of a nuclear recoil at a high recoil energy of 248 keV, where no background events are expected. We show that such nuclear recoil event could be caused by high velocity dark matter particles originating from interactions with energetic cosmic rays. We analyze the expected recoil spectrum due to cosmic ray boosted dark matter within the non-relativistic effective theory formalism, and show that momentum-dependent operators, such as $\mathcal{O}_6$ and $\mathcal{O}_{10}$, can produce a spectrum that peaks at the observed energy.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Heikinheimo, Matti, Zimmermann, Niklas
Institutions: University of Helsinki, Helsinki Institute of Physics
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Nuclear Physics
OpenAlex ID: W7212309677