One Event, Two Frontiers: From LZ to LHC

Abstract

The 248 keV nuclear-recoil event observed by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment could potentially arise from dark matter (DM) interactions with nucleons. We investigate elastic scattering interpretation, focusing on Lagrangians that yield a local significance of $3σ$ or higher for some DM mass. We identify DM parameter space compatible with the LZ event and assess its consistency with collider constraints by recasting the ATLAS monojet plus missing-transverse-momentum search at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, based on $139~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of data. For most of the effective interactions, we find that LHC constraints exclude the DM interpretation of the LZ event for DM masses below $\lesssim\,$TeV subject to the effective field theory (EFT) validity. In particular, we derive, for the first time, LHC constraints on several explicit momentum-dependent Lagrangians, including $\mathcal{L}_{10}$. For many interactions, these constraints are sufficiently strong that the corresponding parameter space below DM mass $\lesssim\,$TeV may be challenging to probe even with future direct detection experiments. Our results, therefore, have broader implications beyond the interpretation of the LZ event itself.