Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering
Abstract
Dark matter direct detection experiments have limited sensitivity to light dark matter (below a few GeV), due to the challenges of lowering energy thresholds for the detection of nuclear recoil to below $$\mathcal{O}$$(keV). While impressive progress has been made on this front, light dark matter remains the least constrained region of dark-matter parameter space. It has been shown that both ionization and excitation due to the Migdal effect and coherently emitted photon bremsstrahlung from the recoiling atom can provide observable channels for light dark matter that would otherwise have been missed owing to the resulting nuclear recoil falling below the detector threshold. In this paper we extend previous work by calculating the Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung rates for a general set of interaction types, including those that are momentum independent or dependent, spin independent or dependent, as well as examining the rates for a variety of target materials, allowing us to place new experimental limits on some of these interaction types. Additionally, we include a calculation of these effects induced by the coherent scattering on nuclei of solar or atmospheric neutrinos. We demonstrate that the Migdal effect dominates over the bremsstrahlung effect for all targets considered for interactions induced by either dark matter or neutrinos. This reduces photon bremsstrahlung to irrelevancy for future direct detection experiments.
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); Australian Research Council (ARC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1593188
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1802301
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC-001198; SC0011981; NSF PHY-1820801; NSF PHY-1748958
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review D
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Physical Review D Journal Volume: 101 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2470-0010
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Astronomy & Astrophysics; Physics
Citation Formats
Bell, Nicole F., Dent, James B., Newstead, Jayden L., Sabharwal, Subir, and Weiler, Thomas J. Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012.
Bell, Nicole F., Dent, James B., Newstead, Jayden L., Sabharwal, Subir, & Weiler, Thomas J. Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012
Bell, Nicole F., Dent, James B., Newstead, Jayden L., Sabharwal, Subir, and Weiler, Thomas J. Wed .
"Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012.
@article{osti_1593188,
title = {Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering},
author = {Bell, Nicole F. and Dent, James B. and Newstead, Jayden L. and Sabharwal, Subir and Weiler, Thomas J.},
abstractNote = {Dark matter direct detection experiments have limited sensitivity to light dark matter (below a few GeV), due to the challenges of lowering energy thresholds for the detection of nuclear recoil to below $\mathcal{O}$(keV). While impressive progress has been made on this front, light dark matter remains the least constrained region of dark-matter parameter space. It has been shown that both ionization and excitation due to the Migdal effect and coherently emitted photon bremsstrahlung from the recoiling atom can provide observable channels for light dark matter that would otherwise have been missed owing to the resulting nuclear recoil falling below the detector threshold. In this paper we extend previous work by calculating the Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung rates for a general set of interaction types, including those that are momentum independent or dependent, spin independent or dependent, as well as examining the rates for a variety of target materials, allowing us to place new experimental limits on some of these interaction types. Additionally, we include a calculation of these effects induced by the coherent scattering on nuclei of solar or atmospheric neutrinos. We demonstrate that the Migdal effect dominates over the bremsstrahlung effect for all targets considered for interactions induced by either dark matter or neutrinos. This reduces photon bremsstrahlung to irrelevancy for future direct detection experiments.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012},
journal = {Physical Review D},
number = 1,
volume = 101,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2020},
month = {Wed Jan 22 00:00:00 EST 2020}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012
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