Signatures and Detection Prospects for sub-GeV Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium
Abstract
We explore the possibility of using superfluid helium for direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter (DM). We discuss the relevant phenomenology resulting from the scattering of an incident dark matter particle on a Helium nucleus. Rather than directly exciting quasi-particles, DM in this mass range will interact with a single He atom, triggering an atomic cascade which eventually also includes emission and thermalization of quasi-particles. We present in detail the analytical framework needed for modeling these processes and determining the resulting flux of quasi-particles. We propose a novel method for detecting this flux with modern force-sensitive devices, such as nanoelectro-mechanical system (NEMS) oscillators, and derive the sensitivity projections for a generic sub-GeV DM detection experiment using such sensors.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2208.14474,
title = {Signatures and Detection Prospects for sub-GeV Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium},
author = {Yining You and Jordan Smolinsky and Wei Xue and Konstantin T. Matchev and Keegan Gunther and Yoonseok Lee and Tarek Saab},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.14474},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
28 pages, 12 figures