Related papers: Prediction of Tunable Spin-Orbit Gapped Materials …
Semiconductors with $\mathcal{O}(\text{meV})$ band gaps have been shown to be promising targets to search for sub-MeV mass dark matter (DM). In this paper we focus on a class of materials where such narrow band gaps arise naturally as a…
Dark Matter particles are commonly assumed to be weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with a mass in the GeV to TeV range. However, recent interest has shifted towards lighter WIMPs, which are more difficult to probe experimentally.…
Because of their tiny band gaps Dirac materials promise to improve the sensitivity for dark matter particles in the sub-MeV mass range by many orders of magnitude. Here we study several candidate materials and calculate the expected rates…
We propose the use of three-dimensional Dirac materials as targets for direct detection of sub-MeV dark matter. Dirac materials are characterized by a linear dispersion for low-energy electronic excitations, with a small band gap of O(meV)…
As the search space for light dark matter (DM) has shifted to sub-GeV DM candidate particles, increasing attention has turned to solid state detectors built from quantum materials. While traditional solid state detector targets (e.g. Si or…
Dirac materials have been proposed as a new class of electron-based detectors for light dark-matter (DM) scattering or absorption, with predicted sensitivities far exceeding superconductors and superfluid helium. The superiority of Dirac…
We examine in greater detail the recent proposal of using superconductors for detecting dark matter as light as the warm dark matter limit of O(keV). Detection of such light dark matter is possible if the entire kinetic energy of the dark…
Semiconductors are by now well-established targets for direct detection of MeV to GeV dark matter via scattering off electrons. We show that semiconductor targets can also detect significantly lighter dark matter via an absorption process.…
About $26\%$ of the matter in our Universe is made up of Dark Matter (DM), which interacts with Standard Model (SM) matter only through gravitational or weak interactions. Many proposals have been made by scientists about the possible…
We study the prospects of detecting dark matter coupled to the spin of the electron, such that it may scatter and excite magnons - collective excitations of electronic spins. We show that materials exhibiting long-range magnetic order where…
We consider the direct detection of dark matter (DM) with polar materials, where single production of optical or acoustic phonons gives excellent reach to scattering of sub-MeV DM for both scalar and vector mediators. Using Density…
Dirac materials, because of their small ${\cal O}(\mbox{meV})$ band gap, are a promising target for dark photon-mediated scattering and absorption of light dark matter. In this paper, we characterize the daily modulation rate of dark matter…
Magnetic topological insulators and semi-metals have a variety of properties that make them attractive for applications including spintronics and quantum computation, but very few high-quality candidate materials are known. In this work, we…
The light dark matter mass regime has emerged as the next frontier in the direct detection experiment due to the lack of any detection signal in the higher mass range. In this paper, we propose a new detector material, a bilayer stack of…
We propose the use of several unconventional materials as detectors for dark matter with mass beneath the MeV scale. These include the transition-metal dichalcogenide TiSe$_2$ hosting a low-energy plasmon in the charge-density-wave phase,…
We propose anti-ferromagnets as optimal targets to hunt for sub-MeV dark matter with spin-dependent interactions. These materials allow for multi-magnon emission even for very small momentum transfers, and are therefore sensitive to dark…
We propose the use of silicon carbide (SiC) for direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter. SiC has properties similar to both silicon and diamond, but has two key advantages: (i) it is a polar semiconductor which allows sensitivity to a…
We propose to use high-purity lab-grown diamond for the detection of sub-GeV dark matter. Diamond targets can be sensitive to both nuclear and electron recoils from dark matter scattering in the MeV and above mass range, as well as to…
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…
The existence of dark matter is undisputed, while the nature of it is still unknown. Explaining dark matter with the existence of a new unobserved particle is among the most promising possible solutions. Recently dark matter candidates in…