New Constraints on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

J Aalbers^{1

2}, D S Akerib^{1

2}, A K Al Musalhi³, F Alder³, C S Amarasinghe⁴, A Ames^{1

2}, T J Anderson^{1

2}, N Angelides⁵, H M Araújo⁵, J E Armstrong⁶, M Arthurs^{1

2}, A Baker^{5

7}, S Balashov⁸, J Bang⁹, J W Bargemann⁴, E E Barillier^{10

11}, K Beattie¹², T Benson¹³, A Bhatti⁶, A Biekert^{12

14}, T P Biesiadzinski^{1

2}, H J Birch^{10

11}, E Bishop¹⁵, G M Blockinger¹⁶, B Boxer¹⁷, C A J Brew⁸, P Brás¹⁸, S Burdin¹⁹, M Buuck^{1

2}, M C Carmona-Benitez²⁰, M Carter¹⁹, A Chawla²¹, H Chen¹², J J Cherwinka¹³, Y T Chin²⁰, N I Chott²², M V Converse²³, R Coronel^{1

2}, A Cottle³, G Cox²⁴, D Curran²⁴, C E Dahl^{25

26}, I Darlington³, S Dave³, A David³, J Delgaudio²⁴, S Dey²⁷, L de Viveiros²⁰, L Di Felice⁵, C Ding⁹, J E Y Dobson^{3

7}, E Druszkiewicz²³, S Dubey⁹, S R Eriksen²⁸, A Fan^{1

2}, N M Fearon²⁷, N Fieldhouse²⁷, S Fiorucci¹², H Flaecher²⁸, E D Fraser¹⁹, T M A Fruth²⁹, R J Gaitskell⁹, A Geffre²⁴, J Genovesi²⁰, C Ghag³, R Gibbons^{12

14}, S Gokhale³⁰, J Green²⁷, M G D van der Grinten⁸, J J Haiston²², C R Hall⁶, T Hall¹⁹, S Han^{1

2}, E Hartigan-O'Connor⁹, S J Haselschwardt¹⁰, M A Hernandez^{10

11}, S A Hertel³¹, G Heuermann¹⁰, G J Homenides³², M Horn²⁴, D Q Huang³³, D Hunt²⁷, E Jacquet⁵, R S James³, M K Kannichankandy¹⁶, A C Kaboth²¹, A C Kamaha³³, D Khaitan²³, A Khazov⁸, J Kim⁴, Y D Kim³⁴, J Kingston¹⁷, R Kirk⁹, D Kodroff¹², L Korley¹⁰, E V Korolkova³⁵, H Kraus²⁷, S Kravitz³⁶, L Kreczko²⁸, V A Kudryavtsev³⁵, C Lawes⁷, D S Leonard³⁴, K T Lesko¹², C Levy¹⁶, J Lin^{12

14}, A Lindote¹⁸, W H Lippincott⁴, M I Lopes¹⁸, W Lorenzon¹⁰, C Lu⁹, S Luitz^{1

2}, P A Majewski⁸, A Manalaysay¹², R L Mannino³⁷, C Maupin²⁴, M E McCarthy²³, G McDowell¹⁰, D N McKinsey^{12

14}, J McLaughlin²⁵, J B McLaughlin³, R McMonigle¹⁶, E Mizrachi^{6

37}, M E Monzani^{1

2

38}, E Morrison²², B J Mount³⁹, M Murdy³¹, A St J Murphy¹⁵, H N Nelson⁴, F Neves¹⁸, A Nguyen¹⁵, C L O'Brien³⁶, I Olcina^{12

14}, K C Oliver-Mallory⁵, J Orpwood³⁵, K Y Oyulmaz¹⁵, K J Palladino²⁷, J Palmer²¹, N J Pannifer²⁸, N Parveen¹⁶, S J Patton¹², B Penning^{10

11}, G Pereira¹⁸, E Perry¹², T Pershing³⁷, A Piepke³², Y Qie²³, J Reichenbacher²², C A Rhyne⁹, G R C Rischbieter^{10

11}, E Ritchey⁶, H S Riyat¹⁵, R Rosero³⁰, T Rushton³⁵, D Rynders²⁴, D Santone^{21

27}, A B M R Sazzad³², R W Schnee²², G Sehr³⁶, B Shafer⁶, S Shaw¹⁵, K Shi¹⁰, T Shutt^{1

2}, J J Silk⁶, C Silva¹⁸, J Siniscalco³, R Smith^{12

14}, V N Solovov¹⁸, P Sorensen¹², J Soria^{12

14}, I Stancu³², A Stevens^{3

5}, K Stifter²⁶, B Suerfu^{12

14}, T J Sumner⁵, A Swain²⁷, M Szydagis¹⁶, D R Tiedt²⁴, M Timalsina¹², Z Tong⁵, D R Tovey³⁵, J Tranter³⁵, M Trask⁴, M Tripathi¹⁷, A Usón¹⁵, A C Vaitkus⁹, O Valentino⁵, V Velan¹², A Wang^{1

2}, J J Wang³², Y Wang^{12

14}, J R Watson^{12

14}, L Weeldreyer³², T J Whitis⁴, K Wild²⁰, M Williams¹⁰, W J Wisniewski¹, L Wolf²¹, F L H Wolfs²³, S Woodford¹⁹, D Woodward^{12

20}, C J Wright²⁸, Q Xia¹², J Xu³⁷, Y Xu³³, M Yeh³⁰, D Yeum⁶, W Zha²⁰, H Zhang¹⁵; LZ Collaboration

Affiliations

¹ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025-7015, USA.
² Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085, USA.
³ University College London (UCL), Department of Physics and Astronomy, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
⁴ University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA.
⁵ Imperial College London, Physics Department, Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
⁶ University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA.
⁷ King's College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom.
⁸ STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.
⁹ Brown University, Department of Physics, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-9037, USA.
¹⁰ University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA.
¹¹ University of Zurich, Department of Physics, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
¹² Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California 94720-8099, USA.
¹³ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA.
¹⁴ University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA.
¹⁵ University of Edinburgh, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom.
¹⁶ University at Albany (SUNY), Department of Physics, Albany, New York 12222-0100, USA.
¹⁷ University of California, Davis, Department of Physics, Davis, California 95616-5270, USA.
¹⁸ Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), University of Coimbra, P-3004 516 Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁹ University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom.
²⁰ Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA.
²¹ Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Physics, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom.
²² South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701-3901, USA.
²³ University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA.
²⁴ South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA), Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754-1700, USA.
²⁵ Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA.
²⁶ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, Illinois 60510-5011, USA.
²⁷ University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom.
²⁸ University of Bristol, H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom.
²⁹ The University of Sydney, School of Physics, Physics Road, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
³⁰ Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA.
³¹ University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337, USA.
³² University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 34587-0324, USA.
³³ University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547.
³⁴ IBS Center for Underground Physics (CUP), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea.
³⁵ University of Sheffield, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom.
³⁶ University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712-1192, USA.
³⁷ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
³⁸ Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, V-00120, Vatican City State.
³⁹ Black Hills State University, School of Natural Sciences, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799-0002, USA.

PMID: 40742930
DOI: 10.1103/nr92-jvt3

New Constraints on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

J Aalbers et al. Phys Rev Lett. 2025.

. 2025 Jun 20;134(24):241801.

doi: 10.1103/nr92-jvt3.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025-7015, USA.
² Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085, USA.
³ University College London (UCL), Department of Physics and Astronomy, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.
⁴ University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA.
⁵ Imperial College London, Physics Department, Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom.
⁶ University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA.
⁷ King's College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom.
⁸ STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom.
⁹ Brown University, Department of Physics, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-9037, USA.
¹⁰ University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA.
¹¹ University of Zurich, Department of Physics, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
¹² Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California 94720-8099, USA.
¹³ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA.
¹⁴ University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA.
¹⁵ University of Edinburgh, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom.
¹⁶ University at Albany (SUNY), Department of Physics, Albany, New York 12222-0100, USA.
¹⁷ University of California, Davis, Department of Physics, Davis, California 95616-5270, USA.
¹⁸ Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), University of Coimbra, P-3004 516 Coimbra, Portugal.
¹⁹ University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom.
²⁰ Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA.
²¹ Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Physics, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom.
²² South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701-3901, USA.
²³ University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA.
²⁴ South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA), Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754-1700, USA.
²⁵ Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA.
²⁶ Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, Illinois 60510-5011, USA.
²⁷ University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom.
²⁸ University of Bristol, H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom.
²⁹ The University of Sydney, School of Physics, Physics Road, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
³⁰ Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA.
³¹ University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337, USA.
³² University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 34587-0324, USA.
³³ University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547.
³⁴ IBS Center for Underground Physics (CUP), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea.
³⁵ University of Sheffield, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom.
³⁶ University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712-1192, USA.
³⁷ Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA.
³⁸ Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, V-00120, Vatican City State.
³⁹ Black Hills State University, School of Natural Sciences, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799-0002, USA.

PMID: 40742930
DOI: 10.1103/nr92-jvt3

Abstract

While dual-phase xenon time projection chambers have driven the sensitivity toward weakly interacting massive particles 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 metric ton/yr exposure from the LUX-ZEPLIN 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.

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New Constraints on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

Affiliations

New Constraints on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN Experiment

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

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