Magnetic bubble chambers and sub-GeV dark matter direct detection

Bunting, Philip C.; Gratta, G.; Melia, Tom; Rajendran, Surjeet

doi:10.1103/physrevd.95.095001

Cited by 58 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…These materials are also sensitive to the absorption of ultralight DM (≪ MeV) by electrons [10][11][12][13]. For other direct-detection ideas see [1,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Direct-detection techniques and complementary probes are summarized in [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New constraints and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon

2017

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We study in detail sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon, including the expected electron recoil spectra and annual modulation spectra. We derive improved constraints using low-energy XENON10 and XENON100 ionization-only data. For XENON10, in addition to including electron-recoil data corresponding to about 1-3 electrons, we include for the first time events corresponding to about 4-7 electrons. Assuming the scattering is momentum independent (F DM ¼ 1), this strengthens a previous crosssection bound by almost an order of magnitude for dark matter masses above 50 MeV. The available XENON100 data corresponds to events with about 4-50 electrons, and leads to a constraint that is comparable to the XENON10 bound above 50 MeV for F DM ¼ 1. We demonstrate that a search for an annual modulation signal in upcoming xenon experiments (XENON1T, XENONnT, LZ) could substantially improve the above bounds even in the presence of large backgrounds. We also emphasize that in simple benchmark models of sub-GeV dark matter, the dark matter-electron scattering rate can be as high as one event every ten (two) seconds in the XENON1T (XENONnT or LZ) experiments, without being in conflict with any other known experimental bounds. While there are several sources of backgrounds that can produce single-or few-electron events, a large event rate can be consistent with a dark matter signal and should not be simply written off as purely a detector curiosity. This fact motivates a detailed analysis of the ionization-data ("S2") data, taking into account the expected annual modulation spectrum of the signal rate, as well as the DM-induced electron-recoil spectra, which are another powerful discriminant between signal and background.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New constraints and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon

2017

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“…These scattering events have momentum transfer q in the region of ∼ 0.1 eV-1 keV. A number of proposals exploit a dark matter interaction with phonons, as these are the relevant quanta at these low energy/momentum transfers [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]; for crystal-based proposals [9,12,13], optical phonons are important as these have the correct kinematics to efficiently couple to light dark matter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This "coupling-to-mass" limit is a generic feature of dark matter interactions with atoms and molecules that are being searched for in proposed sub-eV crystal or molecule-based direct detection experiments (see refs. [9,[12][13][14]). In these experiments, the dark matter is assumed to have some interaction with individual nucleons and electrons, for example, via couplings to their electric, baryon or weak charges.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dark matter phonon coupling

2019

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Generically, the effective coupling between the dark matter and an atom scales with the number of constituents in the atom, resulting in the effective coupling being proportional to the mass of the atom. In this limit, when the momentum transfer is also small, we show that the leading term in the scattering of a particle off the optical phonons of an array of atoms, whether in a crystal or in a molecule, vanishes. Next-generation dark matter direct detection experiments with sub-eV energy thresholds will operate in a regime where this effect is important, and the suppression can be up to order 10 6 over naive expectations. For dark matter that couples differently to protons and neutrons, the suppression is typically of order 10 − 100 but can be avoided through a judicious choice of material, utilising variations in nuclear ratios Z/A to break the proportionality of the coupling to mass. We provide explicit illustrations of this effect by calculating structure factors for di-molecules and for the crystals NaI and sapphire.

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“…Recent years have seen a growing interest in experimental techniques for detecting light dark photon dark matter (DPDM), and many ideas have been studied. These include microwave cavity experiments such as ADMX [1], a dark matter radio [2], dish antennas [3][4][5][6][7][8], dielectric haloscopes [9], absorption in various targets [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], the use of dark matter detectors as helioscopes [19], and repurposing of gravitational wave detectors [20] as well as other accelerometers [21]. All these techniques focus on DPDM with masses keV, in which case it must be produced nonthermally to avoid constraints on warm dark matter [22,23].…”

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confidence: 99%

Dark photon dark matter produced by axion oscillations

et al. 2019

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Despite growing interest and extensive effort to search for ultralight dark matter in the form of a hypothetical dark photon, how it fits into a consistent cosmology is unclear. Several dark photon dark matter production mechanisms proposed previously are known to have limitations, at least in certain mass regimes of experimental interest. In this letter, we explore a novel mechanism, where a coherently oscillating axion-like field can efficiently transfer its energy density to a dark photon field via a tachyonic instability. The residual axion relic is subsequently depleted via couplings to the visible sector, leaving only the dark photon as dark matter. We ensure that the cosmologies of both the axion and dark photon are consistent with existing constraints. We find that the mechanism works for a broad range of dark photon masses, including those of interest for ongoing experiments and proposed detection techniques.

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Magnetic bubble chambers and sub-GeV dark matter direct detection

Cited by 58 publications

References 69 publications

New constraints and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon

New constraints and prospects for sub-GeV dark matter scattering off electrons in xenon

Dark matter phonon coupling

Dark photon dark matter produced by axion oscillations

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