Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments
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 electrons, leading to a measurable signal. We introduce a semian...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2015
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99359 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-1319 |
| _version_ | 1810986692893474816 |
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| author | Lee, Samuel K. Lisanti, Mariangela Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth Safdi, Benjamin |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Lee, Samuel K. Lisanti, Mariangela Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth Safdi, Benjamin |
| author_sort | Lee, Samuel K. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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 electrons, leading to a measurable signal. We introduce a semianalytic approach to characterize the resulting electron-scattering events in atomic and semiconductor targets, improving on previous analytic proposals that underestimate the signal at high recoil energies. We then use this procedure to study the time-dependent properties of the electron-scattering signal, including the modulation fraction, higher-harmonic modes and modulation phase. The time dependence can be distinct in a nontrivial way from the nuclear scattering case. Additionally, we show that dark-matter interactions inside the Earth can significantly distort the laboratory-frame phase-space distribution of sub-GeV dark matter. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:38:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/99359 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:38:16Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/993592022-09-27T20:53:05Z Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments Lee, Samuel K. Lisanti, Mariangela Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth Safdi, Benjamin Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Safdi, Benjamin 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 electrons, leading to a measurable signal. We introduce a semianalytic approach to characterize the resulting electron-scattering events in atomic and semiconductor targets, improving on previous analytic proposals that underestimate the signal at high recoil energies. We then use this procedure to study the time-dependent properties of the electron-scattering signal, including the modulation fraction, higher-harmonic modes and modulation phase. The time dependence can be distinct in a nontrivial way from the nuclear scattering case. Additionally, we show that dark-matter interactions inside the Earth can significantly distort the laboratory-frame phase-space distribution of sub-GeV dark matter. MIT Department of Physics Pappalardo Program (Fellowship) 2015-10-19T12:35:52Z 2015-10-19T12:35:52Z 2015-10 2015-09 2015-10-16T18:40:21Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1550-7998 1550-2368 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99359 Lee, Samuel K., Mariangela Lisanti, Siddharth Mishra-Sharma, and Benjamin R. Safdi. “Modulation Effects in Dark Matter-Electron Scattering Experiments.” Phys. Rev. D 92, no. 8 (October 2015). © 2015 American Physical Society https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-1319 en http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.083517 Physical Review D Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. American Physical Society application/pdf American Physical Society American Physical Society |
| spellingShingle | Lee, Samuel K. Lisanti, Mariangela Mishra-Sharma, Siddharth Safdi, Benjamin Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title | Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title_full | Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title_fullStr | Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title_short | Modulation effects in dark matter-electron scattering experiments |
| title_sort | modulation effects in dark matter electron scattering experiments |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/99359 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9531-1319 |
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