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PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv

Higgsino Dark Matter Interpretation of the LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV Nuclear-Recoil Event

  • Katherine Freese
  • Dionysios P. Theodosopoulos1
  1. 1Weinberg Institute for Theoretical Physics , Department of Physics , The University of Texas at Austin , Austin , TX 78712 , USA
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Abstract

We propose Higgsino dark matter as a potential interpretation of the 248 keV nuclear-recoil event of interest reported by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. LZ studied several rare background processes and detector effects in detail, but did not identify any as a likely explanation of the event. A nearly pure Higgsino naturally realizes inelastic dark matter through the off-diagonal Z coupling of two nearly degenerate neutral Majorana states separated by a mass splitting δ. The same electroweak interaction fixes the inelastic Higgsino-nucleon scattering cross section, rather than leaving it as a free parameter. We show that the predicted Higgsino inelastic scattering cross section approaches the published LZ two-sided 90% confidence interval for a Higgsino mass mH̃∼1 TeV and a mass splitting δ∼350 keV.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{freese2026higgsino,
  title = {{Higgsino Dark Matter Interpretation of the LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV Nuclear-Recoil Event}},
  author = {Katherine Freese and Dionysios P. Theodosopoulos},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.01583},
  eprint = {2609.01583},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01583},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Higgsino Dark Matter Interpretation of the LUX-ZEPLIN 248 keV Nuclear-Recoil Event
AU  - Katherine Freese
AU  - Dionysios P. Theodosopoulos
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/01
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.01583
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.01583
AB  - We propose Higgsino dark matter as a potential interpretation of the 248 keV nuclear-recoil event of interest reported by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. LZ studied several rare background processes and detector effects in detail, but did not identify any as a likely explanation of the event. A nearly pure Higgsino naturally realizes inelastic dark matter through the off-diagonal Z coupling of two nearly degenerate neutral Majorana states separated by a mass splitting δ. The same electroweak interaction fixes the inelastic Higgsino-nucleon scattering cross section, rather than leaving it as a free parameter. We show that the predicted Higgsino inelastic scattering cross section approaches the published LZ two-sided 90% confidence interval for a Higgsino mass m_H̃∼1 TeV and a mass splitting δ∼350 keV.
SN  - 2331-8422
ER  -