Nuclear interference versus dark sector excitation in the 248 keV LUX-ZEPLIN recoil candidate
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Physics , Zhejiang Normal University , Jinhua , Zhejiang 321004 , China
- 2Research Center of Astrophysics and Cosmology , Khazar University , Baku , AZ1096 , 41 Mehseti Street , Azerbaijan
- 3Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant' Angelo , Edificio G , Via Cinthia , I-80126 , Napoli , Italy,
- 4School of Physics , Harbin Institute of Technology , Harbin 150001 , People's Republic of China
Abstract
The 2026 LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) high energy nuclear recoil search reports one event at 248±23stat±23sys keV and finds the elastic isovector interaction ℒ6v locally favored at about 3.3σ in the heavy dark matter regime. We examine whether this recoil scale can arise from resolved nuclear response within the elastic interaction and compare its spectral, target, and annual modulation behavior with endothermic dark sector excitation. Covariant matching correlates four Galilean operators, removes the longitudinal spin response algebraically, and fixes interference between density and orbital spin orbit amplitudes. The GCN and JJ55 xenon shell model calculations give a second natural xenon cancellation at $211$ and 214 keV. In the heavy mass regime, its position changes by less than 0.01 keV from a dark matter mass of 200 GeV to the asymptotic limit. A curvature weighted isotope centroid reproduces the position and residual depth of the natural xenon minimum. Direct 40Ar calculations shift the nuclear feature to about $350$ and 425 keV, whereas endothermic excitation follows reduced mass scaling set by the dark state splitting. At a dark matter mass of 1 TeV, the endothermic Ar to Xe scale ratio is $1.082$, compared with $1.63$ to $2.01$ for the nuclear calculations. Elastic scattering gives a few percent annual modulation in the adopted halo model, while endothermic solutions near the maximum laboratory halo speed show much larger seasonal variation. These scaling and timing behaviors provide tests of a target-dependent nuclear cancellation against an excitation energy set by dark sector kinematics.
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BibTeX
@misc{khan2026nuclear,
title = {{Nuclear interference versus dark sector excitation in the 248 keV LUX-ZEPLIN recoil candidate}},
author = {Imtiaz Khan and Salvatore Capozzıello and G. Mustafa and Farruh Atamurotov and Ahmadjon Abdujabbarov and Chengxun Yuan},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.09230},
eprint = {2609.09230},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09230},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Nuclear interference versus dark sector excitation in the 248 keV LUX-ZEPLIN recoil candidate
AU - Imtiaz Khan
AU - Salvatore Capozzıello
AU - G. Mustafa
AU - Farruh Atamurotov
AU - Ahmadjon Abdujabbarov
AU - Chengxun Yuan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/07
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.09230
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.09230
AB - The 2026 LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) high energy nuclear recoil search reports one event at 248±23_stat±23_sys keV and finds the elastic isovector interaction ℒ_6^v locally favored at about 3.3σ in the heavy dark matter regime. We examine whether this recoil scale can arise from resolved nuclear response within the elastic interaction and compare its spectral, target, and annual modulation behavior with endothermic dark sector excitation. Covariant matching correlates four Galilean operators, removes the longitudinal spin response algebraically, and fixes interference between density and orbital spin orbit amplitudes. The GCN and JJ55 xenon shell model calculations give a second natural xenon cancellation at $211$ and 214 keV. In the heavy mass regime, its position changes by less than 0.01 keV from a dark matter mass of 200 GeV to the asymptotic limit. A curvature weighted isotope centroid reproduces the position and residual depth of the natural xenon minimum. Direct ^40Ar calculations shift the nuclear feature to about $350$ and 425 keV, whereas endothermic excitation follows reduced mass scaling set by the dark state splitting. At a dark matter mass of 1 TeV, the endothermic Ar to Xe scale ratio is $1.082$, compared with $1.63$ to $2.01$ for the nuclear calculations. Elastic scattering gives a few percent annual modulation in the adopted halo model, while endothermic solutions near the maximum laboratory halo speed show much larger seasonal variation. These scaling and timing behaviors provide tests of a target-dependent nuclear cancellation against an excitation energy set by dark sector kinematics.
SN - 2331-8422
ER -