A single flash of light recorded nearly a mile beneath South Dakota has left physicists both excited and stumped. The event, caught by the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) dark matter detector, is being described by the collaboration as its most compelling hint of dark matter to date, yet researchers still cannot rule out a far more ordinary explanation.
The interaction was picked up by the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment on 16 June 2023. Physicists have spent months investigating possible background processes and potential detector effects, but so far they have been unable to identify a likely explanation for the event.
