PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv
Inelastic Dark Matter from a Higher-Dimensional Operator: The LUX-ZEPLIN High-Recoil Event and Thermal Relic
Abstract
The recent LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) data shows a nuclear-recoil event around 248 keV, motivating scenarios in which dark matter (DM) preferentially scatters at large recoil energies. We investigate an inelastic scattering interpretation in terms of a simple extension with a fermionic DM field interacting with the Standard Model through a single dimension-6 operator. A tiny soft symmetry breaking term facilitates an endothermic transition while naturally suppressing elastic scatterings. Without any fine tuning, a simultaneous explanation of the LZ data and the observed relic density can be effected for a DM mass in the ∼ (0.2,1) TeV range.
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BibTeX
@misc{choudhury2026inelastic,
title = {{Inelastic Dark Matter from a Higher-Dimensional Operator: The LUX-ZEPLIN High-Recoil Event and Thermal Relic}},
author = {Debajyoti Choudhury and Jaydeb Das and Divya Sachdeva},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.00645},
eprint = {2610.00645},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00645},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Inelastic Dark Matter from a Higher-Dimensional Operator: The LUX-ZEPLIN High-Recoil Event and Thermal Relic
AU - Debajyoti Choudhury
AU - Jaydeb Das
AU - Divya Sachdeva
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.00645
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.00645
AB - The recent LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) data shows a nuclear-recoil event around 248 keV, motivating scenarios in which dark matter (DM) preferentially scatters at large recoil energies. We investigate an inelastic scattering interpretation in terms of a simple extension with a fermionic DM field interacting with the Standard Model through a single dimension-6 operator. A tiny soft symmetry breaking term facilitates an endothermic transition while naturally suppressing elastic scatterings. Without any fine tuning, a simultaneous explanation of the LZ data and the observed relic density can be effected for a DM mass in the ∼ (0.2,1) TeV range.
ER -