Search for the Migdal effect in liquid xenon with keV-level nuclear recoils

Xu, J.; Adams, D.; Lenardo, B. G.; Pershing, T.; Mannino, R. L.; Bernard, E.; Kingston, J.; Mizrachi, E.; Lin, J.; Essig, R.; Mozin, V.; Kerr, P.; Bernstein, A.; Tripathi, M.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L051101

Title: Search for the Migdal effect in liquid xenon with keV-level nuclear recoils

Journal Article · 10 March 2024 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.109.L051101 · OSTI ID:2322581

; Adams, D.; Lenardo, B. G.; Pershing, T.;

; Bernard, E.; Kingston, J.;

;

; Essig, R.; Mozin, V.;

;

; Tripathi, M.

The Migdal effect predicts that a nuclear recoil interaction can be accompanied by atomic ionization, allowing many dark matter direct detection experiments to gain sensitivity to sub-GeV masses. We report the first direct search for the Migdal effect for M- and L-shell electrons in liquid xenon using nuclear recoils produced by tagged neutron scatters. Despite an observed background rate lower than that of expected signals in the region of interest, we do not observe a signal consistent with predictions. We discuss possible explanations, including inaccurate predictions for either the Migdal rate or the signal response in liquid xenon. We comment on the implications for direct dark matter searches and future Migdal characterization efforts. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Simons Foundation; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344; NA0000979; SC0009854

OSTI ID:: 2322581

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-850170; L051101

Journal Information:: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 109; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 2470-0010

Publisher:: American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (35)

The Migdal effect in semiconductors for dark matter with masses below ∼ 100 MeV Berghaus, Kim V.; Esposito, Angelo; Essig, Rouven Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2023, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2023)023	journal	January 2023
Migdal effect in dark matter direct detection experiments Ibe, Masahiro; Nakano, Wakutaka; Shoji, Yutaro Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2018, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2018)194	journal	March 2018
Free-ion yield and electron-ion recombination rate in liquid xenon Mozumder, A. Chemical Physics Letters, Vol. 245, Issue 4-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-2614(95)01024-4	journal	November 1995
The study of the L-shell fluorescence yields of xenon Hribar, M.; Kodre, A.; Pahor, J. Physica B+C, Vol. 92, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-4363(77)90158-9	journal	August 1977
The MIGDAL experiment: Measuring a rare atomic process to aid the search for dark matter Araújo, H. M.; Balashov, S. N.; Borg, J. E. Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 151 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2023.102853	journal	September 2023
Evaluation of the Neutron Data Standards Carlson, A. D.; Pronyaev, V. G.; Capote, R. Nuclear Data Sheets, Vol. 148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nds.2018.02.002	journal	February 2018
Low-energy ( < 10 keV ) electron ionization and recombination model for a liquid argon detector Foxe, M.; Hagmann, C.; Jovanovic, I. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 771 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2014.10.055	journal	January 2015
Recent developments in Geant4 Allison, J.; Amako, K.; Apostolakis, J. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 835 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2016.06.125	journal	November 2016
Direct dark matter search by observing electrons produced in neutralino–nucleus collisions Moustakidis, Ch. C.; Vergados, J. D.; Ejiri, H. Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 727, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nuclphysb.2005.08.033	journal	October 2005
The role of ionization electrons in direct neutralino detection Vergados, J. D.; Ejiri, H. Physics Letters B, Vol. 606, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2004.11.085	journal	January 2005
Detection capability of the Migdal effect for argon and xenon nuclei with position-sensitive gaseous detectors Nakamura, Kiseki D.; Miuchi, Kentaro; Kazama, Shingo Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Vol. 2021, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/ptep/ptaa162	journal	November 2020
Atomic M -Shell Coster-Kronig, Auger, and Radiative Rates, and Fluorescence Yields for Ca-Th McGuire, Eugene J. Physical Review A, Vol. 5, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.5.1043	journal	March 1972
Migdal effect and photon bremsstrahlung in effective field theories of dark matter direct detection and coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering Bell, Nicole F.; Dent, James B.; Newstead, Jayden L. Physical Review D, Vol. 101, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.015012	journal	January 2020
Electron ionization via dark matter-electron scattering and the Migdal effect Baxter, Daniel; Kahn, Yonatan; Krnjaic, Gordan Physical Review D, Vol. 101, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.076014	journal	April 2020
Model-independent determination of the Migdal effect via photoabsorption Liu, C. -P.; Wu, Chih-Pan; Chi, Hsin-Chang Physical Review D, Vol. 102, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.102.121303	journal	December 2020
Measurement of charge and light yields for Xe 127 L -shell electron captures in liquid xenon Temples, D. J.; McLaughlin, J.; Bargemann, J. Physical Review D, Vol. 104, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.112001	journal	December 2021
Observing the Migdal effect from nuclear recoils of neutral particles with liquid xenon and argon detectors Bell, Nicole F.; Dent, James B.; Lang, Rafael F. Physical Review D, Vol. 105, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.096015	journal	May 2022
Calibrating the scintillation and ionization responses of xenon recoils for high-energy dark matter searches Pershing, T.; Naim, D.; Lenardo, B. G. Physical Review D, Vol. 106, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.106.052013	journal	September 2022
Precise predictions and new insights for atomic ionization from the Migdal effect Cox, Peter; Dolan, Matthew J.; McCabe, Christopher Physical Review D, Vol. 107, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.035032	journal	February 2023
Search for low-mass dark matter via bremsstrahlung radiation and the Migdal effect in SuperCDMS Albakry, M. F.; Alkhatib, I.; Alonso-González, D. Physical Review D, Vol. 107, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.112013	journal	June 2023
Measuring the Migdal effect in semiconductors for dark matter detection Adams, Duncan; Baxter, Daniel; Day, Hannah Physical Review D, Vol. 107, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.L041303	journal	February 2023
Response of liquid xenon to Compton electrons down to 1.5 keV Baudis, L.; Dujmovic, H.; Geis, C. Physical Review D, Vol. 87, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.115015	journal	June 2013
Tritium calibration of the LUX dark matter experiment Akerib, D. S.; Araújo, H. M.; Bai, X. Physical Review D, Vol. 93, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.93.072009	journal	April 2016
DarkSide-50 532-day dark matter search with low-radioactivity argon Agnes, P.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Alexander, T. Physical Review D, Vol. 98, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.102006	journal	November 2018
Results from the Super Cryogenic Dark Matter Search Experiment at Soudan Agnese, R.; Aramaki, T.; Arnquist, I. J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 120, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.061802	journal	February 2018
Results of a Search for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Using 2013 LUX Data Akerib, D. S.; Alsum, S.; Araújo, H. M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.131301	journal	April 2019
Search for Light Dark Matter Interactions Enhanced by the Migdal Effect or Bremsstrahlung in XENON1T Aprile, E.; Aalbers, J.; Agostini, F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241803	journal	December 2019
Relation between the Migdal Effect and Dark Matter-Electron Scattering in Isolated Atoms and Semiconductors Essig, Rouven; Pradler, Josef; Sholapurkar, Mukul Physical Review Letters, Vol. 124, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.021801	journal	January 2020
SENSEI: Direct-Detection Results on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a New Skipper CCD Barak, Liron; Bloch, Itay M.; Cababie, Mariano Physical Review Letters, Vol. 125, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.171802	journal	October 2020
Dark Matter Search Results from the PandaX-4T Commissioning Run Meng, Yue; Wang, Zhou; Tao, Yi Physical Review Letters, Vol. 127, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.261802	journal	December 2021
Search for New Physics in Electronic Recoil Data from XENONnT Aprile, E.; Abe, K.; Agostini, F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 129, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.161805	journal	October 2022
Search for Dark-Matter–Nucleon Interactions via Migdal Effect with DarkSide-50 Agnes, P.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Alexander, T. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 130, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.101001	journal	March 2023
First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment Aalbers, J.; Akerib, D. S.; Akerlof, C. W. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 131, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.041002	journal	July 2023
First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment Aprile, E.; Abe, K.; Agostini, F. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 131, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.041003	journal	July 2023
On Electromagnetic Contributions in wimp Quests Bernabei, R.; Belli, P.; Montecchia, F. International Journal of Modern Physics A, Vol. 22, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217751X07037093	journal	July 2007

Similar Records

First Measurement of Discrimination between Helium and Electron Recoils in Liquid Xenon for Low-Mass Dark Matter Searches

Journal Article · 2024 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:2323960

Haselschwardt, S. J.; Gibbons, R.; Chen, H.; +5 more

Measuring the molecular Migdal effect with neutron scattering on diatomic gases

Journal Article · 2024 · Physical Review. D. · OSTI ID:2478036

Kahn, Yonatan; Pérez-Ríos, Jesús

Search for dark matter annual modulation with DarkSide-50

Journal Article · 2024 · Physical Review. D. · OSTI ID:2478308

Agnes, P.; Albuquerque, I. F. M.; Alexander, T.; +141 more

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
Migdal effect
direct detection
dual-phase xenon time projection chamber
low-mass dark matter

Title: Search for the Migdal effect in liquid xenon with keV-level nuclear recoils

Citation Formats

References (35)

Similar Records

Related Subjects