Related papers: Constraining Dark Matter-Proton Scattering from Mo…
We demonstrate that ionization of $\text{H}_2$ by dark matter in dense molecular clouds can provide strong constraints on the scattering strength of dark matter with electrons. Molecular clouds have high UV-optical attenuation, shielding…
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…
A key strategy for the direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter is to search for small ionization signals. These can arise from dark matter-electron scattering or when the dark matter-nucleus scattering process is accompanied by a "Migdal"…
We revisit dark matter (DM) capture in celestial objects, including the impact of multiple scattering, and obtain updated constraints on the DM-proton cross section using observations of white dwarfs. Considering a general form for the…
Nuclear scattering events with large momentum transfer in atomic, molecular, or solid-state systems may result in electronic excitations. In the context of atomic scattering by dark matter (DM), this is known as the Migdal effect, but the…
The elastic scattering of an atomic nucleus plays a central role in dark matter direct detection experiments. In those experiments, it is usually assumed that the atomic electrons around the nucleus of the target material immediately follow…
We show that the ionization of dense molecular clouds can be used to set strong constraints on dark matter models producing UV/X-ray photons in their annihilation or decay. We place robust and competitive constraints on various dark matter…
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…
Due to the dense environment, neutron stars (NSs) can serve as an ideal laboratory for studying the interactions between dark matter (DM) and ordinary matter. In the process of DM capture, deep inelastic scattering may dominate over elastic…
Motivated by the current strong constraints on the spin-independent dark matter (DM)-nucleus scattering, we investigate the spin-dependent (SD) interactions of the light Majorana DM with the nucleus mediated by an axial-vector boson. Due to…
Dark matter elastic scattering off nuclei can result in the excitation and ionization of the recoiling atom through the so-called Migdal effect. The energy deposition from the ionization electron adds to the energy deposited by the…
We investigate the impact of inelastic collisions between dark matter (DM) and heavy cosmic ray (CR) nuclei on CR propagation. We approximate the fragmentation cross-sections for DM-CR collisions using collider-measured proton-nuclei…
The Migdal effect is a key inelastic signal channel which could be used to detect low-mass dark matter, but it has never been observed experimentally using Standard Model probes. Here we propose a conceptual design for an experiment which…
Due to the low nuclear recoils, sub-GeV dark matter (DM) is usually beyond the sensitivity of the conventional DM direct detection experiments. The boosted and Migdal scattering mechanisms have been proposed as two new complementary avenues…
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…
The ionization signal provide an important avenue of detecting light dark matter. In this work, we consider the sub-GeV inelastic dark matter and use the non-relativistic effective field theory (NR-EFT) to derive the constraints on the…
All attempts to directly detect particle dark matter (DM) scattering on nuclei suffer from the partial or total loss of sensitivity for DM masses in the GeV range or below. We derive novel constraints from the inevitable existence of a…
We propose a new method to constrain elastic scattering between dark matter (DM) and standard model particles in the early Universe. Direct or indirect thermal coupling of non-relativistic DM with photons leads to a heat sink for the…
Halo dark matter (DM) particles could lose energy due to the scattering off nuclei within the Earth before reaching the underground detectors of DM direct detection experiments. This Earth shielding effect can result in diurnal modulation…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…