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Title: Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of dark matter scattering off light nuclei

Journal Article · · Physical Review C
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of Trento, Trento (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trento Inst. for Fundamental Physics and Applications (INFN-TIFPA), Trento (Italy)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Univ. of Trento, Trento (Italy). Dipt. di Fisica; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Trento Inst. for Fundamental Physics and Applications (INFN-TIFPA), Trento (Italy)
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We compute the matrix elements for elastic scattering of dark matter (DM) particles off light nuclei (2H, 3H, 3He, 4He, and 6Li ) using quantum Monte Carlo methods. We focus on scalar-mediated DM-nucleus interactions and use scalar currents obtained to next-to-leading order in chiral effective theory. The nuclear ground states are obtained from a phenomenological nuclear Hamiltonian that includes the Argonne v18 two-body interaction and the three-body Urbana IX interaction. Within this approach, we study the impact of one- and two-body currents and discuss the size of nuclear uncertainties, including for the first time two-body effects in A = 4 and A = 6 systems. Lastly, our results provide the nuclear structure input needed to assess the sensitivity of future experimental searches of (light) dark matter using light nuclei, such as 3Heand 4He .

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1511618
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--18-30452
Journal Information:
Physical Review C, Journal Name: Physical Review C Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 99; ISSN PRVCAN; ISSN 2469-9985
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Sub-GeV dark matter in superfluid He-4: an effective theory approach journal June 2019
Sub-GeV Dark Matter in Superfluid He-4: an Effective Theory Approach text January 2019

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