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Study of few-electron backgrounds in the LUX-ZEPLIN detector

D. S. Akerib1,2, A. K. Al Musalhi3, F. Alder3, B. J. Almquist4, C. S. Amarasinghe5, A. Ames1,2,*, T. J. Anderson1,2, N. Angelides6, H. M. Araújo6,7 et al. (LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration)

H. M. Araújo6,7, J. E. Armstrong8, M. Arthurs1,2, A. Baker6,9, S. Balashov7, J. Bang4, J. W. Bargemann5, E. E. Barillier10,11, K. Beattie12, T. Benson13, A. Bhatti8, T. P. Biesiadzinski1,2, H. J. Birch10,11, E. Bishop14, G. M. Blockinger15, B. Boxer16, C. A. J. Brew7, P. Brás17, S. Burdin18, M. C. Carmona-Benitez19, M. Carter18, A. Chawla20, H. Chen12, Y. T. Chin19, N. I. Chott21, S. Contreras22, M. V. Converse23, R. Coronel1,2, A. Cottle3, G. Cox24, D. Curran24, C. E. Dahl25,26, I. Darlington3, S. Dave3, A. David3, J. Delgaudio24, S. Dey27, L. de Viveiros19, L. Di Felice6, C. Ding4, J. E. Y. Dobson9, E. Druszkiewicz23, S. Dubey4, C. L. Dunbar24, S. R. Eriksen28, A. Fan1,2, N. M. Fearon27, N. Fieldhouse27, S. Fiorucci12, H. Flaecher28, E. D. Fraser18, T. M. A. Fruth29, R. J. Gaitskell4, A. Geffre24, J. Genovesi19,21, C. Ghag3, A. Ghosh15, S. Ghosh1,2, R. Gibbons12,30, S. Gokhale31, J. Green27, M. G. D. van der Grinten7, J. J. Haiston21, C. R. Hall8, T. Hall18, S. J. Haselschwardt10, M. A. Hernandez10,11, S. A. Hertel32, G. J. Homenides33, M. Horn24, D. Q. Huang22, D. Hunt27,34, E. Jacquet6, R. S. James3,†, K. Jenkins17, A. C. Kaboth20, A. C. Kamaha22, M. K. Kannichankandy15, D. Khaitan23, A. Khazov7, J. Kim5, Y. D. Kim35, J. Kingston16, D. Kodroff12,19, E. V. Korolkova36, H. Kraus27, S. Kravitz34, L. Kreczko28, V. A. Kudryavtsev36, C. Lawes9, D. S. Leonard35, K. T. Lesko12, C. Levy15, J. Lin12,30, A. Lindote17, W. H. Lippincott5, J. Long25, M. I. Lopes17, W. Lorenzon10, C. Lu4, S. Luitz1,2, P. A. Majewski7, A. Manalaysay12, R. L. Mannino37, C. Maupin24, M. E. McCarthy23, D. N. McKinsey12,30, J. McLaughlin25, J. B. McLaughlin3, R. McMonigle15, B. Mitra25, E. Mizrachi1,2,8,37,‡, M. E. Monzani1,2,38, E. Morrison21, B. J. Mount39, M. Murdy32, A. St. J. Murphy14, H. N. Nelson5, F. Neves17, A. Nguyen14, C. L. O’Brien34, F. H. O’Shea1, I. Olcina12,30, K. C. Oliver-Mallory6, J. Orpwood36, K. Y. Oyulmaz14, K. J. Palladino27, N. J. Pannifer28, N. Parveen15, S. J. Patton12, B. Penning10,11, G. Pereira17, E. Perry12, T. Pershing37, A. Piepke33, S. S. Poudel21, Y. Qie23, J. Reichenbacher21, C. A. Rhyne4, G. R. C. Rischbieter10,11, E. Ritchey8, H. S. Riyat14, R. Rosero31, T. Rushton36, D. Rynders24, S. Saltão17, D. Santone20,27, A. B. M. R. Sazzad33,37, R. W. Schnee21, G. Sehr34, B. Shafer8, S. Shaw14, K. Shi10, T. Shutt1,2, C. Silva17, G. Sinev21, J. Siniscalco3, A. M. Slivar33, R. Smith12,30, V. N. Solovov17, P. Sorensen12, J. Soria12,30, A. Stevens3, T. J. Sumner6, A. Swain27, M. Szydagis15, D. R. Tiedt24, M. Timalsina12, Z. Tong6, D. R. Tovey36, J. Tranter36, M. Trask5, K. Trengove15, M. Tripathi16, A. Usón14, A. C. Vaitkus4, O. Valentino6, V. Velan12, A. Wang1,2,§, J. J. Wang33, Y. Wang12,30, L. Weeldreyer5, T. J. Whitis5, K. Wild19, M. Williams12, J. Winnicki1, L. Wolf20, F. L. H. Wolfs23, S. Woodford14,18, D. Woodward12, C. J. Wright28, Q. Xia12, J. Xu37,∥, Y. Xu22, M. Yeh31, D. Yeum8, W. Zha19, H. Zhang14, and T. Zhang12 (LUX-ZEPLIN Collaboration)

  • 1SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025-7015, USA
  • 2Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4085 USA
  • 3University College London (UCL), Department of Physics and Astronomy, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 4Brown University, Department of Physics, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-9037, USA
  • 5University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530, USA
  • 6Imperial College London, Physics Department, Blackett Laboratory, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
  • 7STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, United Kingdom
  • 8University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA
  • 9King’s College London, King’s College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 10University of Michigan, Randall Laboratory of Physics, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1040, USA
  • 11University of Zurich, Department of Physics, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland
  • 12Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, California 94720-8099, USA
  • 13University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Physics, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1390, USA
  • 14University of Edinburgh, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, Edinburgh EH9 3FD, United Kingdom
  • 15University at Albany (SUNY), Department of Physics, Albany, New York 12222-0100, USA
  • 16University of California, Davis, Department of Physics, Davis, California 95616-5270, USA
  • 17Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas (LIP), University of Coimbra, P-3004 516 Coimbra, Portugal
  • 18University of Liverpool, Department of Physics, Liverpool L69 7ZE, United Kingdom
  • 19Pennsylvania State University, Department of Physics, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA
  • 20Royal Holloway, University of London, Department of Physics, Egham, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom
  • 21South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota 57701-3901, USA
  • 22University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Los Angeles, California 90095-1547, USA
  • 23University of Rochester, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester, New York 14627-0171, USA
  • 24South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA), Sanford Underground Research Facility, Lead, South Dakota 57754-1700, USA
  • 25Northwestern University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3112, USA
  • 26Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, Illinois 60510-5011, USA
  • 27University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Oxford OX1 3RH, United Kingdom
  • 28University of Bristol, H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol, BS8 1TL, United Kingdom
  • 29The University of Sydney, School of Physics, Physics Road, Camperdown, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
  • 30University of California, Berkeley, Department of Physics, Berkeley, California 94720-7300, USA
  • 31Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
  • 32University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003-9337, USA
  • 33University of Alabama, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 34587-0324, USA
  • 34University of Texas at Austin, Department of Physics, Austin, Texas 78712-1192, USA
  • 35IBS Center for Underground Physics (CUP), Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Korea
  • 36University of Sheffield, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
  • 37Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, California 94550-9698, USA
  • 38Vatican Observatory, Castel Gandolfo, V-00120, Vatican City State
  • 39Black Hills State University, School of Natural Sciences, Spearfish, South Dakota 57799-0002, USA

  • *Contact author: dreames@stanford.edu
  • †Present address: The University of Melbourne, School of Physics, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
  • ‡Contact author: emiz@slac.stanford.edu
  • §Contact author: awang5@slac.stanford.edu
  • ∥Contact author: xu12@llnl.gov
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 072018 – Published 29 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/p2vl-rx74

Abstract

The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment aims to detect rare interactions between dark matter particles and xenon. Although the detector is designed to be the most sensitive to GeV/c2–TeV/c2 weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), it is also capable of measuring low-energy ionization signals down to a single electron that may be produced by scatters of sub-GeV/c2 dark matter. The major challenge in exploiting this sensitivity is to understand and suppress the ionization background in the few-electron regime. We report a characterization of the delayed electron backgrounds following energy depositions in the LZ detector under different detector conditions. In addition, we quantify the probability for photons to be emitted in coincidence with electron emission from the high voltage grids. We then demonstrate that spontaneous grid electron emission can be identified and rejected with a high efficiency using a coincident photon tag, which provides a tool to improve the sensitivity of future dark matter searches.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 072018– Published 29 April, 2026
  • Received 9 October 2025
  • Accepted 17 March 2026
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