Related papers: Inelastic Dark Matter Electron Scattering and the …
Sub-GeV dark matter particles evade standard direct detection studies since their typical energies in the galactic halo do not allow for detectable recoil of the heavy nuclei in the detectors. However, it was noted that if the dark matter…
There has been renewed interest in the possibility that dark matter exists in the form of atoms, analogous to those of the visible world. An important input for understanding the cosmological consequences of dark atoms is their…
We study dark matter that inelastically scatters and de-excites in direct detection experiments, as an interpretation of the CDMS-Si events in light of the recent LUX data. The constraints from LUX and XENON10 require the mass-splitting…
We present a novel unifying interpretation of excess event rates observed in several dark matter direct-detection experiments that utilize single-electron threshold semiconductor detectors. Despite their different locations, exposures,…
Diverse searches for direct dark matter (DM) in effective electromagnetic and leptophilic interactions resulting from new physics, as well as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with unconventional electronic recoils, are…
We present a comprehensive framework for interpreting electron recoil signals induced by fast-moving dark matter (DM), applicable across a wide range of theoretically motivated models. Amid both null results in conventional weakly…
In most direct detection experiments, the free nuclear recoil description of dark matter scattering breaks down for masses $\lesssim$ 100 MeV, or when the recoil energy is comparable to a few times the typical phonon energy. For dark matter…
We examine the signals produced by dark matter interactions with electrons, which play a crucial role in direct detection experiments employing heavy target materials, particularly in many well-motivated sub-GeV dark matter scenarios. When…
The scattering of sub-GeV dark matter in direct detection experiments happens at characteristic wavelengths comparable or larger than the interparticle spacing. Collective effects in the target material must therefore be accounted for when…
In recent years, a growing experimental program has begun to search for sub-GeV dark matter through its scattering with electrons. An associated theoretical challenge is to compute the dark matter scattering rate in experimental targets,…
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…
Traditional dark matter models, eg. WIMPs, assume dark matter is weakly coupled to the standard model so that elastic scattering between dark matter and baryons can be described perturbatively by Born approximation. Most direct detection…
Diffuse neutrinos from past supernovae in the Universe present us with a unique opportunity to test dark matter (DM) interactions. These neutrinos can scatter and boost the DM particles in the Milky Way halo to relativistic energies…
We develop a formalism to describe the scattering of dark matter (DM) particles by electrons bound in crystals for a general form of the underlying DM-electron interaction. Such a description is relevant for direct-detection experiments of…
Dark matter is typically assumed not to couple to the photon at tree level. While annihilation to photons through quark loops is often considered in indirect detection searches, such loop-level effects are usually neglected in direct…
We show that the scattering rate for any dark matter (DM) interaction with electrons in any target is proportional to several measurable material properties, encapsulated by a single master formula. This generalizes the dielectric function…
In this paper, we systematically investigate the general dark matter-electron interactions within the framework of effective field theories (EFT). We consider both the non-relativistic (NR) EFT and the relativistic EFT descriptions of the…
Low-threshold dark matter detectors, in particular cryogenic detectors based on dielectric materials, are among the best tools for probing sub-GeV dark matter masses. In the coming years detectors of this type will become sensitive to solar…
In the light of the recently observed XENON1T electronic recoil (ER) data, we investigate the possibility of constraining the parameter space of a generic fermionic warm dark matter (WDM), decaying into a standard model (SM) neutrino and a…
We explore the phenomenology of a class of models where the dark matter particle can inelastically up-scatter to a heavier excited state via off-diagonal dipolar interactions with the interstellar plasma (gas or free electrons). The heavier…