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LUX-ZEPLIN Sets Strongest Low-Mass WIMP Limits and Detects Solar Neutrino Signal

The findings reveal the detector's first clear neutrino background that will reshape how future dark-matter signals are interpreted.

Overview

  • LZ’s 417-day underground run from March 2023 to April 2025 found no definitive low-mass WIMP nuclear-recoil signature.
  • The analysis reports 4.5-sigma evidence of boron-8 solar neutrinos via coherent elastic neutrino–nucleus scattering in liquid xenon, the detector’s first neutrino signal.
  • The results set world-leading exclusion limits for low-mass WIMPs and improve calibration practices to reduce false positives in direct-detection searches.
  • The xenon-based instrument operates nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, managed by Berkeley Lab with major contributions from SLAC.
  • A longer 1,000-day run is slated for 2028, and SLAC is leading U.S. pre-project work for the international next-generation XLZD experiment.