Testing Higgs-Coupled Minimal Dark Matter with Solar Neutrinos after the LZ High-Recoil Event
Abstract
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Collaboration has reported a nuclear-recoil candidate at $248$ keV, motivating interpretations in terms of endothermic dark matter (DM). We investigate this signal in Higgs-coupled minimal dark matter (HC-MDM), where the same electroweak interaction responsible for the terrestrial recoil also induces DM capture in the Sun and a potentially observable high-energy neutrino signal. We independently determine the mass splittings required to reproduce the LZ event and perform an improved calculation of Solar capture and post-capture evolution. Our treatment includes natural isotope mixtures, exact inelastic kinematics, nuclear form factors, finite-temperature nuclear motion near kinematic closure, orbital cooling through loop-induced elastic scattering, and an explicit capture--annihilation equilibrium test. The resulting Solar predictions are numerically stable and robust against the astrophysical and nuclear variations considered. For the two thermal benchmarks within the released IceCube DM mass grid, 3M2D and 5M4D, the predicted annihilation rates exceed the mass-matched W+W- IceCube response by factors of approximately 2.2×103 and $91$, placing both standard-halo solutions under strong tension within the W+W- response mapping used here. For the heavier representations, whose masses lie above the published $10$ TeV IceCube grid, we construct a response-based extrapolation to higher masses. The $22$ TeV 7M6D benchmark remains in strong tension with IceCube even under our conservative response-loss extrapolation, while the $48$ TeV 9M8D benchmark also remains above the extrapolated response, although much closer to the sensitivity boundary. The $82$ TeV 11M10D benchmark is response dependent, whereas the $130$ TeV 13M12D benchmark remains below the extrapolated IceCube sensitivity.
Related
- A Comprehensive Interpretation of the LZ High-Energy Recoil Event: A Minimal U(1)B Dark Sector and Its Experimental Tests
- Higgsino Dark Matter Interpretation of the LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV Nuclear-Recoil Event
- Direct detection of right-handed fermionic dark matter: electron-recoil measurements in Xe atoms
- Heavy Higgsino Dark Matter With Low Reheating in View of the LZ High-Recoil Event
- Sub-TeV Singlino Dark Matter in light from Sagittarius A∗ and LUX-ZEPLIN Nuclear-Recoil Event
BibTeX
@misc{mauro2026testing,
title = {{Testing Higgs-Coupled Minimal Dark Matter with Solar Neutrinos after the LZ High-Recoil Event}},
author = {Mattia Di Mauro},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.19174},
eprint = {2609.19174},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19174},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Testing Higgs-Coupled Minimal Dark Matter with Solar Neutrinos after the LZ High-Recoil Event
AU - Mattia Di Mauro
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.19174
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.19174
AB - The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Collaboration has reported a nuclear-recoil candidate at $248$ keV, motivating interpretations in terms of endothermic dark matter (DM). We investigate this signal in Higgs-coupled minimal dark matter (HC-MDM), where the same electroweak interaction responsible for the terrestrial recoil also induces DM capture in the Sun and a potentially observable high-energy neutrino signal. We independently determine the mass splittings required to reproduce the LZ event and perform an improved calculation of Solar capture and post-capture evolution. Our treatment includes natural isotope mixtures, exact inelastic kinematics, nuclear form factors, finite-temperature nuclear motion near kinematic closure, orbital cooling through loop-induced elastic scattering, and an explicit capture--annihilation equilibrium test. The resulting Solar predictions are numerically stable and robust against the astrophysical and nuclear variations considered. For the two thermal benchmarks within the released IceCube DM mass grid, 3_M2_D and 5_M4_D, the predicted annihilation rates exceed the mass-matched W^+W^- IceCube response by factors of approximately 2.2×10^3 and $91$, placing both standard-halo solutions under strong tension within the W^+W^- response mapping used here. For the heavier representations, whose masses lie above the published $10$ TeV IceCube grid, we construct a response-based extrapolation to higher masses. The $22$ TeV 7_M6_D benchmark remains in strong tension with IceCube even under our conservative response-loss extrapolation, while the $48$ TeV 9_M8_D benchmark also remains above the extrapolated response, although much closer to the sensitivity boundary. The $82$ TeV 11_M10_D benchmark is response dependent, whereas the $130$ TeV 13_M12_D benchmark remains below the extrapolated IceCube sensitivity.
ER -