English

Superconducting Detectors for Super Light Dark Matter

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2016-01-13 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

We propose and study a new class of superconducting detectors which are sensitive to O(meV) electron recoils from dark matter-electron scattering. Such devices could detect dark matter as light as the warm dark matter limit, mX > keV. We compute the rate of dark matter scattering off of free electrons in a (superconducting) metal, including the relevant Pauli blocking factors. We demonstrate that classes of dark matter consistent with terrestrial and cosmological/astrophysical constraints could be detected by such detectors with a moderate size exposure.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1504.07237,
  title  = {Superconducting Detectors for Super Light Dark Matter},
  author = {Yonit Hochberg and Yue Zhao and Kathryn M. Zurek},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.07237},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures; v2: improved detection discussion, modified benchmark model

R2 v1 2026-06-22T09:23:42.090Z