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arXiv · 2609.36184

LMC-Perturbed LZ Dark Matter Landscape

Abstract

The local dark matter (DM) velocity distribution is significantly altered by the gravitational impact of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which creates a high-velocity tail. We evaluate how the LMC reshapes the DM landscape for a wide variety of theoretical models in light of the recent putative LZ DM event. We show that the LMC-induced velocity shifts substantially modify the parameter space for inelastic endothermic DM models across a broad range of possible interactions, driving the viable regions towards larger mass splittings, which are more susceptible to collider and indirect detection constraints. By contrast, models for elastically colliding DM are less impacted, and some remain viable candidates -- for example, the simple light Singlet-Doublet Majorana DM candidate at the Higgs blind spot. Our work confirms that accurately accounting for LMC effects is essential when high-velocity DM is probed, rather than relying on the simplified Standard Halo Model.

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Nassim Bozorgnia, Samantha Contreras, Graciela B. Gelmini, Alvine C. Kamaha, Javier Reynoso-Cordova, Yongheng Xu. 2026-09-28. LMC-Perturbed LZ Dark Matter Landscape. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36184

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