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Title: Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials

Abstract

Here, 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 Ο(meV) if lattice symmetries are broken. Dark matter at the keV scale carrying kinetic energy as small as a few meV can scatter and excite an electron across the gap. Alternatively, bosonic dark matter as light as a few meV can be absorbed by the electrons in the target. We develop the formalism for dark matter scattering and absorption in Dirac materials and calculate the experimental reach of these target materials. We find that Dirac materials can play a crucial role in detecting dark matter in the keV to MeV mass range that scatters with electrons via a kinetically mixed dark photon, as the dark photon does not develop an in-medium effective mass. The same target materials provide excellent sensitivity to absorption of light bosonic dark matter in the meV to hundreds of meV mass range, superior to all other existing proposals when the dark matter is a kinetically mixed dark photon.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [6];  [7]
  1. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Dept. of Physics and Lab. for Elementary-Particle Physics (LEPP); Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem (Israel). Racah Inst. of Physics
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Physics
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Grenoble, CNRS (France). Neel Inst.
  5. Tel Aviv Univ., Ramat Aviv (Israel). Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy
  6. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
  7. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Kavli Energy NanoScience Inst.; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry and Materials Sciences Division
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland); Israel Science Foundation (ISF); Binational Science Foundation (BSF); Azrieli Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; Research Corp. for Science Advancement; European Commission (EC); National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship
OSTI Identifier:
1416063
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1436165
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; PHY-1419008; SC0007968; 653846; PHY-1607611
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Physical Review. D.
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Volume: 97 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; particle dark matter; dirac semimetal; density functional theory

Citation Formats

Hochberg, Yonit, Kahn, Yonatan, Lisanti, Mariangela, Zurek, Kathryn M., Grushin, Adolfo G., Ilan, Roni, Griffin, Sinead M., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Weber, Sophie F., and Neaton, Jeffrey B. Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.97.015004.
Hochberg, Yonit, Kahn, Yonatan, Lisanti, Mariangela, Zurek, Kathryn M., Grushin, Adolfo G., Ilan, Roni, Griffin, Sinead M., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Weber, Sophie F., & Neaton, Jeffrey B. Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.015004
Hochberg, Yonit, Kahn, Yonatan, Lisanti, Mariangela, Zurek, Kathryn M., Grushin, Adolfo G., Ilan, Roni, Griffin, Sinead M., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Weber, Sophie F., and Neaton, Jeffrey B. Mon . "Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.015004.
@article{osti_1416063,
title = {Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials},
author = {Hochberg, Yonit and Kahn, Yonatan and Lisanti, Mariangela and Zurek, Kathryn M. and Grushin, Adolfo G. and Ilan, Roni and Griffin, Sinead M. and Liu, Zhen-Fei and Weber, Sophie F. and Neaton, Jeffrey B.},
abstractNote = {Here, 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 Ο(meV) if lattice symmetries are broken. Dark matter at the keV scale carrying kinetic energy as small as a few meV can scatter and excite an electron across the gap. Alternatively, bosonic dark matter as light as a few meV can be absorbed by the electrons in the target. We develop the formalism for dark matter scattering and absorption in Dirac materials and calculate the experimental reach of these target materials. We find that Dirac materials can play a crucial role in detecting dark matter in the keV to MeV mass range that scatters with electrons via a kinetically mixed dark photon, as the dark photon does not develop an in-medium effective mass. The same target materials provide excellent sensitivity to absorption of light bosonic dark matter in the meV to hundreds of meV mass range, superior to all other existing proposals when the dark matter is a kinetically mixed dark photon.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.97.015004},
journal = {Physical Review. D.},
number = 1,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Jan 08 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Mon Jan 08 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.015004

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