New constraints on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment
Abstract
While dual-phase xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) have driven the sensitivity towards weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) at the GeV/c^2 to TeV/c^2 mass scale, the scope for sub-GeV/c^2 dark matter particles is hindered by a limited nuclear recoil energy detection threshold. One approach to probe for lighter candidates is to consider cases where they have been boosted by collisions with cosmic rays in the Milky Way, such that the additional kinetic energy lifts their induced signatures above the nominal threshold. In this Letter, we report first results of a search for cosmic ray-boosted dark matter (CRDM) with a combined 4.2 tonne-year exposure from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. We observe no excess above the expected backgrounds and establish world-leading constraints on the spin-independent CRDM-nucleon cross section as small as 3.9 * 10^{-33} cm^2 at 90% confidence level for sub-GeV/c^2 masses.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2503.18158,
title = {New constraints on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment},
author = {J. Aalbers and D. S. Akerib and A. K. Al Musalhi and F. Alder and C. S. Amarasinghe and A. Ames and T. J. Anderson and N. Angelides and H. M. Araujo and J. E. Armstrong and M. Arthurs and A. Baker and S. Balashov and J. Bang and J. W. Bargemann and E. E. Barillier and K. Beattie and A. Bhatti and A. Biekert and T. P. Biesiadzinski and H. J. Birch and E. Bishop and G. M. Blockinger and B. Boxer and C. A. J. Brew and P. Bras and S. Burdin and M. Buuck and M. C. Carmona-Benitez and M. Carter and A. Chawla and H. Chen and Y. T. Chin and N. I. Chott and M. V. Converse and R. Coronel and A. Cottle and G. Cox and D. Curran and C. E. Dahl and A. David and J. Delgaudio and S. Dey and L. de Viveiros and L. Di Felice and C. Ding and J. E. Y. Dobson and E. Druszkiewicz and S. Dubey and S. R. Eriksen and A. Fan and N. M. Fearon and N. Fieldhouse and S. Fiorucci and H. Flaecher and E. D. Fraser and T. M. A. Fruth and R. J. Gaitskell and A. Geffre and J. Genovesi and C. Ghag and R. Gibbons and S. Gokhale and J. Green and M. G. D. van der Grinten and J. J. Haiston and C. R. Hall and S. Han and E. Hartigan-O'Connor and S. J. Haselschwardt and M. A. Hernandez and S. A. Hertel and G. Heuermann and G. J. Homenides and M. Horn and D. Q. Huang and D. Hunt and E. Jacquet and R. S. James and J. Johnson and A. C. Kaboth and A. C. Kamaha and M. Kannichankandy and D. Khaitan and A. Khazov and I. Khurana and J. Kim and Y. D. Kim and J. Kingston and R. Kirk and D. Kodroff and L. Korley and E. V. Korolkova and H. Kraus and S. Kravitz and L. Kreczko and V. A. Kudryavtsev and D. S. Leonard and K. T. Lesko and C. Levy and J. Lin and A. Lindote and W. H. Lippincott and M. I. Lopes and W. Lorenzon and C. Lu and S. Luitz and P. A. Majewski and A. Manalaysay and R. L. Mannino and C. Maupin and M. E. McCarthy and G. McDowell and D. N. McKinsey and J. McLaughlin and J. B. McLaughlin and R. McMonigle and E. Mizrachi and A. Monte and M. E. Monzani and E. Morrison and B. J. Mount and M. Murdy and A. St. J. Murphy and A. Naylor and H. N. Nelson and F. Neves and A. Nguyen and C. L. O'Brien and I. Olcina and K. C. Oliver-Mallory and J. Orpwood and K. Y Oyulmaz and K. J. Palladino and J. Palmer and N. J. Pannifer and N. Parveen and S. J. Patton and B. Penning and G. Pereira and E. Perry and T. Pershing and A. Piepke and Y. Qie and J. Reichenbacher and C. A. Rhyne and Q. Riffard and G. R. C. Rischbieter and E. Ritchey and H. S. Riyat and R. Rosero and T. Rushton and D. Rynders and D. Santone and A. B. M. R. Sazzad and R. W. Schnee and G. Sehr and B. Shafer and S. Shaw and T. Shutt and J. J. Silk and C. Silva and G. Sinev and J. Siniscalco and R. Smith and V. N. Solovov and P. Sorensen and J. Soria and A. Stevens and K. Stifter and B. Suerfu and T. J. Sumner and M. Szydagis and D. R. Tiedt and M. Timalsina and Z. Tong and D. R. Tovey and J. Tranter and M. Trask and M. Tripathi and A. Vacheret and A. C. Vaitkus and O. Valentino and V. Velan and A. Wang and J. J. Wang and Y. Wang and J. R. Watson and L. Weeldreyer and T. J. Whitis and K. Wild and M. Williams and W. J. Wisniewski and L. Wolf and F. L. H. Wolfs and S. Woodford and D. Woodward and C. J. Wright and Q. Xia and J. Xu and Y. Xu and M. Yeh and D. Yeum and W. Zha},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.18158},
year = {2025}
}