Related papers: Dark Matter-Electron Scattering from Aromatic Orga…
Direct detection experiments utilizing electronic excitations are spearheading the search for light, sub-GeV, dark matter (DM). It is thus crucial to have accurate predictions for any DM-electron interaction rate in this regime. EXCEED-DM…
We describe a novel search for MeV-to-GeV-mass dark matter, in which the dark matter scatters off electrons in a scintillating target. The excitation and subsequent de-excitation of the electron produces one or more photons, which could be…
If dark matter (DM) particles are lighter than a few MeV/$c^2$ and can scatter off electrons, their interaction within the solar interior results in a considerable hardening of the spectrum of galactic dark matter received on Earth. For a…
Dark matter (DM) particles with mass in the sub-GeV range are an attractive alternative to heavier weakly-interacting massive particles, but direct detection of such light particles is challenging. If however DM-nucleus scattering leads to…
A number of direct detection experiments are searching for electron excitations created by scattering of sub-GeV dark matter. We present an alternate formulation of dark matter-electron scattering in terms of the dielectric response of a…
We present a new technique for sub-GeV dark matter (DM) searches and a new use of neutrino observatories. DM-electron scattering in an observatory can excite or ionize target molecules, which then produce light that can be detected by the…
One of the next frontiers in dark-matter direct-detection experiments is to explore the MeV to GeV mass regime. Such light dark matter does not carry enough kinetic energy to produce an observable nuclear recoil, but it can scatter off…
Detection of electron recoils by dark matter (DM) may reveal the structure of the dark sector. We consider a scenario where a heavier DM particle inelastically scatters off an electron and is converted into a lighter DM particle. A small…
Direct detection strategies are proposed for dark matter particles with MeV to GeV mass. In this largely unexplored mass range, dark matter scattering with electrons can cause single-electron ionization signals, which are detectable with…
Dark matter in the sub-GeV mass range is a theoretically motivated but largely unexplored paradigm. Such light masses are out of reach for conventional nuclear recoil direct detection experiments, but may be detected through the small…
We show that the rate for dark matter-electron scattering in an arbitrary material is determined by an experimentally measurable quantity, the complex dielectric function, for any dark matter interaction that couples to electron density.…
The scattering of dark matter (DM) particles with sub-GeV masses off nuclei is difficult to detect using liquid xenon-based DM search instruments because the energy transfer during nuclear recoils is smaller than the typical detector…
We point out that a non-relativistic $\sim 2 $ GeV dark matter (DM) which interacts with visible matter through higher dimensional Rayleigh operators could explain the excess of "electron recoil" events recently observed by the Xenon1T…
There are currently several existing and proposed experiments designed to probe sub-GeV dark matter (DM) using electron ionization in various materials. The projected signal rates for these experiments assume that this ionization yield…
Scattering of sub-GeV dark matter (DM) particles with hydrogen atoms is studied in this paper. The interactions of DM with electrons and nucleons are both included and formulated in a general framework based on nonrelativistic effective…
Dark matter (DM)-electron scattering is a prime target of a number of direct DM detection experiments and constitutes a promising avenue for exploring interactions of DM in the sub-GeV mass-range, challenging to probe with nuclear recoils.…
We consider direct-detection searches for sub-GeV dark matter via electron scatterings in the presence of large interactions between dark and ordinary matter. Scatterings both on electrons and nuclei in the Earth's crust, atmosphere, and…
The scattering of light dark matter off thermal electrons inside the Sun produces a "fast" sub-component of the dark matter flux that may be detectable in underground experiments. We update and extend previous work by analyzing the…
Measuring dark matter (DM) signals via electron recoil provides an important means for direct detection of light DM particles. The recent XENON1T anomaly with electron recoil energy around $\,E_R^{}\!=\!(2-3)$keV can be naturally explained…
We investigate the possibility for the direct detection of low mass (GeV scale) WIMP dark matter in scintillation experiments. Such WIMPs are typically too light to leave appreciable nuclear recoils, but may be detected via their scattering…