Probing the Dark Matter EFT with QUEST-DMC: Projected Sensitivities and Attenuation Ceilings
Abstract
This proceedings contribution summarises projected constraints from the QUEST-DMC concept, a surface-based direct-detection experiment using superfluid He operated below the millikelvin regime and instrumented with nanomechanical resonators read out by SQUIDs. The low recoil-energy threshold (down to sub-eV for the SQUID configuration) enables sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter across a wide set of interaction structures beyond the canonical spin-independent and spin-dependent limits. We present projections in the non-relativistic Effective Field Theory (EFT) framework, scanning the standard set of fourteen Galilean-invariant operators and expressing reach in terms of effective dark matter-nucleon (or dark matter-neutron) cross sections. Because QUEST-DMC operates at the surface, we also account for suppression of the incident flux due to scattering in the atmosphere and Earth, which produces an interaction-dependent sensitivity ceiling at large couplings. Finally, we outline how the non-relativistic results map onto representative relativistic EFT dark matter-nucleon bilinears, enabling a compact interpretation of the projected reach in terms of UV-motivated coupling structures.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.23995,
title = {Probing the Dark Matter EFT with QUEST-DMC: Projected Sensitivities and Attenuation Ceilings},
author = {DMC Collaboration and N. Darvishi and S. Autti and L. Bloomfield and A. Casey and N. Eng and P. Franchini and R. P. Haley and P. J. Heikkinen and A. Jennings and A. Kemp and E. Leason and J. March-Russell and A. Mayer and J. Monroe and D. Munstermann and M. T. Noble and J. R. Prance and X. Rojas and T. Salmon and J. Saunders and J. Smirnov and R. Smith and M. D. Thompson and A. Thomson and A. Ting and V. Tsepelin and S. M. West and L. Whitehead and D. E. Zmeev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23995},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Proceedings contributions to Corfu 2025, 12 pages, 3 figs, 1 table