Axion Portal Dark Matter and the LUX-ZEPLIN High-Recoil Event

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) has reported one event compatible with a $248\,\mathrm{keV}$ nuclear recoil. While initial attention has focused on inelastic dark matter, that interpretation depends sensitively on the uncertain high-speed tail of the Galactic halo. We develop instead an elastic realization of the pseudoscalar-pseudoscalar interaction $L_4=(\barχiγ^5χ)(\bar N iγ^5N)$, whose contact templates give one of the largest local significances identified by LZ. The minimal model presented involves primarily Dirac fermion dark matter, and a complex scalar leading to a pseudoscalar mediator. The minimal gauge-invariant UV completion also requires a single multi-TeV vector-like heavy quark. A representative model which realizes thermal freeze-out has $m_χ=400~{\rm GeV}$ and $m_a=1~{\rm GeV}$. The simplest model breaks from the isoscalar/isovector assumption, and the response-level recoil spectrum lies between LZ's elastic $O_4^v$ and contact $L_4^v$ templates, suggesting a local significance of $2.6$-$3.2σ$.