Elastic toroidal vector dark matter through a dark photon in the LUX-ZEPLIN high recoil window
Abstract
The 2026 LUX-ZEPLIN search reports one nuclear recoil candidate at 248±23stat±23sys keV in an extended window reaching about 270 keV. We consider elastic scattering of neutral complex vector dark matter through its dimension-six toroidal electromagnetic moment and find appreciable spectral weight in this recoil region. The nonrelativistic reduction correlates 𝒪17 and 𝒪20, relating a coherent charge branch to a transverse spin tensor branch. For mX=1 TeV, natural xenon exhibits a broad high recoil maximum at $204.8$ to 206.6 keV and retains $80.4$ to 85.4% of this maximum at 248 keV. Resolving the interaction through a dark photon relates the high-to-low recoil ratio to the mediator mass. A renormalizable SU(2)X× U(1)D realization stabilizes the complex vector by a residual Z3 gauge symmetry and generates the toroidal current through vectorlike messengers carrying a physical CP phase. For a benchmark with mX=0.998 TeV and mA'=0.450 GeV, R(248)/R(50)=1.43 for GCN and $1.21$ for JJ55, while the odd A xenon fraction remains above 99.9%. The response level ratio between the $350$ to 590 keV and $100$ to 270 keV intervals is about $0.46$ at this benchmark. The tensor branch is absent for spin zero argon, whereas annual modulation remains at the few percent level. The resulting spectral, isotope, target, timing, mediator, and high energy dependences give correlated tests of an elastic tensor interpretation of the LZ recoil.
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BibTeX
@misc{khan2026elastic,
title = {{Elastic toroidal vector dark matter through a dark photon in the LUX-ZEPLIN high recoil window}},
author = {Imtiaz Khan and Salvatore Capozziello and G. Mustafa and Farkhod Botirov and Ahmadjon Abdujabbarov and Farruh Atamurotov and Phongpichit Channuie},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.25114},
eprint = {2609.25114},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25114},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Elastic toroidal vector dark matter through a dark photon in the LUX-ZEPLIN high recoil window
AU - Imtiaz Khan
AU - Salvatore Capozziello
AU - G. Mustafa
AU - Farkhod Botirov
AU - Ahmadjon Abdujabbarov
AU - Farruh Atamurotov
AU - Phongpichit Channuie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/20
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.25114
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25114
AB - The 2026 LUX-ZEPLIN search reports one nuclear recoil candidate at 248±23_stat±23_sys keV in an extended window reaching about 270 keV. We consider elastic scattering of neutral complex vector dark matter through its dimension-six toroidal electromagnetic moment and find appreciable spectral weight in this recoil region. The nonrelativistic reduction correlates 𝒪_17 and 𝒪_20, relating a coherent charge branch to a transverse spin tensor branch. For m_X=1 TeV, natural xenon exhibits a broad high recoil maximum at $204.8$ to 206.6 keV and retains $80.4$ to 85.4% of this maximum at 248 keV. Resolving the interaction through a dark photon relates the high-to-low recoil ratio to the mediator mass. A renormalizable SU(2)_X× U(1)_D realization stabilizes the complex vector by a residual Z_3 gauge symmetry and generates the toroidal current through vectorlike messengers carrying a physical CP phase. For a benchmark with m_X=0.998 TeV and m_A'=0.450 GeV, R(248)/R(50)=1.43 for GCN and $1.21$ for JJ55, while the odd A xenon fraction remains above 99.9%. The response level ratio between the $350$ to 590 keV and $100$ to 270 keV intervals is about $0.46$ at this benchmark. The tensor branch is absent for spin zero argon, whereas annual modulation remains at the few percent level. The resulting spectral, isotope, target, timing, mediator, and high energy dependences give correlated tests of an elastic tensor interpretation of the LZ recoil.
ER -