Searching for low mass dark matter via phonon creation in superfluid 4He

Abstract

We consider the scattering of dark matter particles from superfluid liquid ${}^4$He, which has been proposed as a target for their direct detection. Focusing on dark matter masses below ~1 MeV, we demonstrate from sum-rule arguments the importance of the production of single phonons with energies $\omega \lesssim 1$ meV. We show further that the anomalous dispersion of phonons in liquid ${}^4$He at low pressures [i.e., $d^2\omega (q)/d{q}^2>0$, where $q$ and $\omega (q)$ are the phonon momentum and energy] has the important consequence that a single phonon will decay over a relatively short distance into a shower of lower energy phonons centered on the direction of the original phonon. Thus the experimental challenge in this regime is to detect a shower of low energy phonons, not just a single phonon. Additional information from the distribution of phonons in such a shower could enhance the determination of the dark matter mass.

arXiv comment17 pages, 12 figures; Updated with correction to 2-phonon integration limits, Equations 55-59

References in corpus (47)

• Supersymmetric Dark Matter
• A History of Dark Matter
• Warm Dark Matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: new constraints from high redshift Lyman-alpha forest data
• The RAVE Survey: Constraining the Local Galactic Escape Speed
• Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Light Dark Matter Search with Ionization Signals in XENON1T
• Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter: Concepts and Status
• The Local Dark Matter Density
• The Milky Way's circular velocity curve between 4 and 14 kpc from APOGEE data
• New Constraints and Prospects for sub-GeV Dark Matter Scattering off Electrons in Xenon
• Annual Modulation of Dark Matter: A Review
• First Dark Matter Constraints from a SuperCDMS Single-Charge Sensitive Detector
• Superconducting Detectors for Super Light Dark Matter
• Constraints on Sub-GeV Dark Matter-Electron Scattering from the DarkSide-50 Experiment
• Constraints on Light Dark Matter Particles Interacting with Electrons from DAMIC at SNOLAB
• SENSEI: Direct-Detection Constraints on Sub-GeV Dark Matter from a Shallow Underground Run Using a Prototype Skipper-CCD
• Dark Matter Direct Detection with Non-Maxwellian Velocity Structure
• Detection of sub-MeV Dark Matter with Three-Dimensional Dirac Materials
• Detecting Superlight Dark Matter with Fermi-Degenerate Materials
• Semiconductor Probes of Light Dark Matter
• Detection of Light Dark Matter With Optical Phonons in Polar Materials
• Detecting Dark Matter with Superconducting Nanowires
• US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report
• On the Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium
• Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter with Scintillating Targets
• On the estimation of the Local Dark Matter Density using the rotation curve of the Milky Way
• On the relation between Migdal effect and dark matter-electron scattering in isolated atoms and semiconductors
• Light Dark Matter in Superfluid Helium: Detection with Multi-excitation Production
• Multi-Channel Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter: Target Comparison
• Electron Ionization via Dark Matter-Electron Scattering and the Migdal Effect
• Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter and Solar Neutrinos via Color Center Production in Crystals
• A Path to the Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter Using Calorimetric Readout of a Superfluid ${}^4$He Target
• Dark Matter-Electron Scattering from Aromatic Organic Targets
• A Concept for A Dark Matter Detector Using Liquid Helium-4
• A Dark Matter Hurricane: Measuring the S1 Stream with Dark Matter Detectors
• Handling the Uncertainties in the Galactic Dark Matter Distribution for Particle Dark Matter Searches
• The impact of baryons on the direct detection of dark matter
• Dark Matter Detection Using Helium Evaporation and Field Ionization
• Direct Detection of Spin-(In)dependent Nuclear Scattering of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Using Molecular Excitations
• Sub-MeV Dark Matter and the Goldstone Modes of Superfluid Helium
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter in Superfluid He-4: an Effective Theory Approach
• Scintillation of Liquid Helium for Low-Energy Nuclear Recoils
• Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter with Semiconductor Targets
• Light Dark Matter and Superfluid He-4 from EFT
• Low Temperature Transport Properties of Very Dilute Classical Solutions of ${}^3$He in Superfluid ${}^4$He
• Interactions of Phonons and Rotons with Interfaces in Superfluid Helium
• Transport and Phonon Damping in ${}^4$He

Cited by in corpus (16)

• Searches for light dark matter using condensed matter systems
• Detectability of Axion Dark Matter with Phonon Polaritons and Magnons
• Effective Field Theory of Dark Matter Direct Detection With Collective Excitations
• Dark matter direct detection from the single phonon to the nuclear recoil regime
• Dark Matter Candidates of a Very Low Mass
• Searching for High Frequency Gravitational Waves with Phonons
• Optomechanical dark matter instrument for direct detection
• Directional detection of light dark matter from three-phonon events in superfluid ${}^4$He
• Optimal anti-ferromagnets for light dark matter detection
• Absorption of Vector Dark Matter Beyond Kinetic Mixing
• Superfluid Effective Field Theory for Dark Matter Direct Detection
• Effects of Lorentz violation in superconductivity
• Effective Field Theory for Acoustic and Pseudo-Acoustic Phonons in Solids
• Directional Detectability of Dark Matter With Single Phonon Excitations: Target Comparison
• Hunting axion dark matter with anti-ferromagnets: a case study with nickel oxide
• Direct Dark Matter searches with Metal Halide Perovskites