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Search for New Physics via Low-Energy Electron Recoils with a 4.2 Tonne-Year Exposure from the LZ Experiment

D. S. Akerib1,2, A. K. Al Musalhi3, F. Alder3, J. Almquist4, C. S. Amarasinghe5, A. Ames1,2, T. J. Anderson1,2, N. Angelides6, H. M. Araújo6 et al. (The LZ Collaboration)

H. M. Araújo6, J. E. Armstrong7, M. Arthurs1,2, A. Baker6,8, S. Balashov9, J. Bang4, J. W. Bargemann5, E. E. Barillier10,11, K. Beattie12, T. Benson13, A. Bhatti7, T. P. Biesiadzinski1,2, H. J. Birch10,11, E. Bishop14, G. M. Blockinger15, B. Boxer16, C. A. J. Brew9, 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. Dobson8, 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, R. Gibbons12,30, S. Gokhale31, J. Green27, M. G. D. van der Grinten9, J. J. Haiston21, C. R. Hall7, T. Hall18, E. Hartigan-O’Connor4, 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. Khazov9, J. Kim5, Y. D. Kim35, J. Kingston16, D. Kodroff12, E. V. Korolkova36, H. Kraus27, S. Kravitz34, L. Kreczko28, V. A. Kudryavtsev36, C. Lawes8, 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. Majewski9, A. Manalaysay12, R. L. Mannino37, C. Maupin24, M. E. McCarthy23, G. McDowell10, D. N. McKinsey12,30, J. McLaughlin25, J. B. Mclaughlin3, R. McMonigle15, B. Mitra25, E. Mizrachi7,37, 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, 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. Ritchey7, H. S. Riyat12,†, R. Rosero31, T. Rushton36, D. Rynders24, S. Saltão17, D. Santone20,27, A. B. M. R. Sazzad33,37, R. W. Schnee21, G. Sehr34, B. Shafer7, 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. Stevens3,6, 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, M. Williams12, K. Wild19, L. Wolf20, F. L. H. Wolfs23, S. Woodford18, D. Woodward12, C. J. Wright28, Q. Xia12, J. Xu37, Y. Xu22,‡,§, M. Yeh31, D. Yeum7, W. Zha19, H. Zhang14, and T. Zhang12 (The LZ 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
  • 7University of Maryland, Department of Physics, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, USA
  • 8King’s College London, Department of Physics, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
  • 9STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), Didcot, OX11 0QX, 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 & 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, NSW 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, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 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: kaan.oyulmaz@ed.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: harkiratriyat@gmail.com
  • ‡Contact author: xuyongheng@physics.ucla.edu
  • §Also at Fysisk Institutt, The University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 101803 – Published 2 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/wnxl-yf95

Abstract

We report results from searches for new physics models through electron recoils using data collected by the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment during its first two science runs, with a total exposure of 4.2  tonne−years. The observed data are consistent with a background-only hypothesis. Constraints are derived for electromagnetic interactions of solar neutrinos, solar axionlike particles (ALPs), mirror dark matter, and the absorption of bosonic dark matter candidates. The inverse Primakoff process for Fe57 deexcitation solar ALPs is considered for the first time. These results represent the most stringent constraints to date on keV-scale Primakoff and Fe57 solar ALPs, bosonic dark matter, mirror dark matter, and neutrino millicharge, while remaining competitive for the other signal models investigated.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 101803– Published 2 September, 2026
  • Received 21 November 2025
  • Revised 28 May 2026
  • Accepted 5 August 2026
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