Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter with Scintillating Targets

By S. Derenzo, R. Essig, A. Massari, Adrián Soto, T. Yu. 2016

142 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Author(s): Derenzo, S; Essig, R; Massari, A; Soto, A; Yu, TT | Abstract: © 2017 American Physical Society. We suggest a novel experimental concept for detecting MeV-to-GeV-mass dark matter, in which the dark matter scatters off electrons in a scintillating target and produces a signal of one or a few photons. New large-area photodetectors are needed to measure the photon signal with negligible dark counts, which could be constructed from transition edge sensor (TES) or microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) technology. Alternatively, detecting two photons in coincidence may allow the use of conventional photodetectors like photomultiplier tubes. We describe why scintillators may have distinct advantages over other experiments searching for a low ionization signal from sub-GeV dark matter, as there are fewer potential sources of spurious backgrounds. We discuss various target choices, but focus on calculating the expected dark matter-electron scattering rates in three scintillating crystals: sodium iodide (NaI), cesium iodide (CsI), and gallium arsenide (GaAs). Among these, GaAs has the lowest band gap (1.52 eV) compared to NaI (5.9 eV) or CsI (6.4 eV), which in principle allows it to probe dark matter masses as low as ∼0.5 MeV, compared to ∼1.5 MeV with NaI or CsI. We compare these scattering rates with those expected in silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge). The proposed experimental concept presents an important complementary path to existing efforts, and its potential advantages may make it the most sensitive direct-detection probe of dark matter down to MeV masses.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics, Radiation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/61f0c15a2f54074d13e82e1c53c004f530306522

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In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. Tongyan Lin
2. K. Zurek
3. R. Essig
4. S. Knapen
5. T. Emken
6. Mukul Sholapurkar
7. C. Kouvaris
8. Jeffrey B. Neaton

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. Tongyan Lin
2. S. Knapen
3. K. Zurek
4. Y. Hochberg
5. C. Kouvaris
6. R. Essig
7. M. Lisanti
8. T. Emken

In Radiation

1. K. Zurek
2. Tongyan Lin
3. Miguel Escudero
4. D. Blas

Citations in the corpus

• Refined bounds on MeV-scale thermal dark sectors from BBN and the CMB (2019, background): “[62] S.”
• Detection of sub-MeV dark matter with three-dimensional Dirac materials (2017, background): “For many such systems, including semiconductors [44–46], graphene [47], scintillators [48], molecules [49], and crystal lattices [50], Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.”
• Direct detection of strongly interacting sub-GeV dark matter via electron recoils (2019, background): “One of the ways around this problem is to look for electron recoils and other signals induced by sub-GeV DM in various materials [4–33].”
• Light dark matter: Models and constraints (2017, background): “New detection methods sensitive to electron interactions have thus been proposed with semiconductors [40,41], atoms [42], graphene [43], and scintillators [44].”
• The Dawn of FIMP Dark Matter: A Review of Models and Constraints (2017, background): “s with sensitivity to DM-electron scattering include Refs. [55{62]. Additional possible methods for detecting sub-GeV DM include semiconductors [63,64], superconductors [65{67], scintillating targets [68], super uid helium [69,70], chemical-bond breaking [71], two-dimensional targets [72{74], color ”