Searches for Light Dark Matter and Evidence of Coherent Elastic Neutrino-Nucleus Scattering of Solar Neutrinos with the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment

The LZ collaboration Akerib, D.S. ; Al Musalhi, A.K. ; Alder, F. ; et al.
2025.
Inspire Record 3091049 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.167350

We present searches for light dark matter (DM) with masses 3-9 GeV/$c^2$ in the presence of coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering (CE$ν$NS) from $^{8}$B solar neutrinos with the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment. This analysis uses a 5.7 tonne-year exposure with data collected between March 2023 and April 2025. In an energy range spanning 1-6 keV, we report no significant excess of events attributable to dark matter nuclear recoils, but we observe a significant signal from $^{8}$B CE$ν$NS interactions that is consistent with expectation. We set world-leading limits on spin-independent and spin-dependent-neutron DM-nucleon interactions for masses down to 5 GeV/$c^2$. In the no-dark-matter scenario, we observe a signal consistent with $^{8}$B CE$ν$NS events, corresponding to a $4.5σ$ statistical significance. This is the most significant evidence of $^{8}$B CE$ν$NS interactions and is enabled by robust background modeling and mitigation techniques. This demonstrates LZ's ability to detect rare signals at keV-scale energies.

5 data tables

90% CL WIMP SI cross sections, including sensitivities

90% CL WIMP SDn cross sections, including sensitivities and nuclear structure uncertainties

90% CL WIMP SDp cross sections, including sensitivities and nuclear structure uncertainties

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