Searches for light dark matter using condensed matter systems

Abstract

Identifying the nature of dark matter (DM) has long been a pressing question for particle physics. In the face of ever-more-powerful exclusions and null results from large-exposure searches for TeV-scale DM interacting with nuclei, a significant amount of attention has shifted to lighter (sub-GeV) DM candidates. Direct detection of the light dark matter in our galaxy by observing DM scattering off a target system requires new approaches compared to prior searches. Lighter DM particles have less available kinetic energy, and achieving a kinematic match between DM and the target mandates the proper treatment of collective excitations in condensed matter systems, such as charged quasiparticles or phonons. In this context, the condensed matter physics of the target material is crucial, necessitating an interdisciplinary approach. In this review, we provide a self-contained introduction to direct detection of keV--GeV DM with condensed matter systems. We give a brief survey of dark matter models and basics of condensed matter, while the bulk of the review deals with the theoretical treatment of DM-nucleon and DM-electron interactions. We also review recent experimental developments in detector technology, and conclude with an outlook for the field of sub-GeV DM detection over the next decade.

arXiv comment90 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables. v2: matches journal version. Invited review for Reports on Progress in Physics

References in corpus (157)

• Phonons and related properties of extended systems from density-functional perturbation theory
• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework
• Freeze-In Production of FIMP Dark Matter
• Dark Matter Self-interactions and Small Scale Structure
• A 2MASS All-Sky View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: I. Morphology of the Sagittarius Core and Tidal Arms
• The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and its Siblings
• New results from DAMA/LIBRA
• Scalar Dark Matter candidates
• Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• The SIMP Miracle
• The Effective Field Theory of Dark Matter Direct Detection
• Light Dark Matter Search with Ionization Signals in XENON1T
• First results from the CRESST-III low-mass dark matter program
• Supernova 1987A Constraints on Sub-GeV Dark Sectors, Millicharged Particles, the QCD Axion, and an Axion-like Particle
• First Direct Detection Limits on sub-GeV Dark Matter from XENON10
• The Local Dark Matter Density
• SENSEI: Direct-Detection Results on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a New Skipper-CCD
• New Constraints and Prospects for sub-GeV Dark Matter Scattering off Electrons in Xenon
• The Four Basic Ways of Creating Dark Matter Through a Portal
• Light Dark Matter: Models and Constraints
• The SIMPlest Miracle
• Dark Matter Search Results from the Complete Exposure of the PICO-60 C${}_3$F${}_8$ Bubble Chamber
• First Dark Matter Constraints from a SuperCDMS Single-Charge Sensitive Detector
• Projected Sensitivity of the SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment
• Single-electron and single-photon sensitivity with a silicon Skipper CCD
• Migdal Effect in Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments
• The XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
• Probing Light Thermal Dark-Matter With a Higgs Portal Mediator
• Superconducting Detectors for Super Light Dark Matter
• Search for Light Dark Matter Interactions Enhanced by the Migdal effect or Bremsstrahlung in XENON1T
• 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
• Turning off the Lights: How Dark is Dark Matter?
• Indirect Dark Matter Signatures in the Cosmic Dark Ages II. Ionization, Heating and Photon Production from Arbitrary Energy Injections
• SENSEI: Direct-Detection Constraints on Sub-GeV Dark Matter from a Shallow Underground Run Using a Prototype Skipper-CCD
• Phase-space structure in the local dark matter distribution and its signature in direct detection experiments
• SENSEI: First Direct-Detection Constraints on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a Surface Run
• Dark Radiation constraints on minicharged particles in models with a hidden photon
• Detection of sub-MeV Dark Matter with Three-Dimensional Dirac Materials
• The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
• First germanium-based constraints on sub-MeV Dark Matter with the EDELWEISS experiment
• Detecting Superlight Dark Matter with Fermi-Degenerate Materials
• Detection of Light Dark Matter With Optical Phonons in Polar Materials
• Semiconductor Probes of Light Dark Matter
• Accelerating the Discovery of Light Dark Matter
• Elastically Decoupling Dark Matter
• Detecting Dark Matter with Superconducting Nanowires
• Absorption of light dark matter in semiconductors
• Dark Matter Detectors as Dark Photon Helioscopes
• Integrating Out Astrophysical Uncertainties
• Constraints on Dark Matter Microphysics from the Milky Way Satellite Population
• Directional Detection of Dark Matter with Two-Dimensional Targets
• Can annihilating Dark Matter be lighter than a few GeVs?
• On the Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium
• Searching for Dark Absorption with Direct Detection Experiments
• Making dark matter out of light: freeze-in from plasma effects
• Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter with Scintillating Targets
• Detecting Ultralight Bosonic Dark Matter via Absorption in Superconductors
• Results of a Search for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Using 2013 LUX Data
• Light spin-1/2 or spin-0 Dark Matter particles
• Probing sub-GeV Dark Matter with conventional detectors
• On electromagnetic contributions in WIMP quests
• Directional Detection of Light Dark Matter with Polar Materials
• Directly detecting sub-GeV dark matter with electrons from nuclear scattering
• On the relation between Migdal effect and dark matter-electron scattering in isolated atoms and semiconductors
• Modulation Effects in Dark Matter-Electron Scattering Experiments
• Constraints on Spin-Independent Nucleus Scattering with sub-GeV Weakly Interacting Massive Particle Dark Matter from the CDEX-1B Experiment at the China Jin-Ping Laboratory
• Light Dark Matter in Superfluid Helium: Detection with Multi-excitation Production
• Diamond Detectors for Direct Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Parkes Pulsar Timing Array constraints on ultralight scalar-field dark matter
• Multi-Channel Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter: Target Comparison
• Atomic responses to general dark matter-electron interactions
• Annual modulation results from three-year exposure of ANAIS-112
• Interpreting Dark Matter Direct Detection Independently of the Local Velocity and Density Distribution
• Cosmic microwave background and large scale structure limits on the interaction between dark matter and baryons
• Electron Ionization via Dark Matter-Electron Scattering and the Migdal Effect
• Multi-Channel Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter: Theoretical Framework
• Results on Low-Mass Weakly Interacting Massive Particles from an 11 kg-day Target Exposure of DAMIC at SNOLAB
• First Direct-Detection Constraints on eV-Scale Hidden-Photon Dark Matter with DAMIC at SNOLAB
• Determining Dark Matter-Electron Scattering Rates from the Dielectric Function
• SiC Detectors for Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• Dirac Materials for Sub-MeV Dark Matter Detection: New Targets and Improved Formalism
• Direct Detection of Light Dark Matter and Solar Neutrinos via Color Center Production in Crystals
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter Detection with Electron Recoils in Carbon Nanotubes
• DarkELF: A python package for dark matter scattering in dielectric targets
• A Path to the Direct Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter Using Calorimetric Readout of a Superfluid ${}^4$He Target
• Detecting Light Dark Matter with Magnons
• Dark matter-electron scattering in dielectrics
• Resonant absorption of bosonic dark matter in molecules
• Light Weakly Coupled Axial Forces: Models, Constraints, and Projections
• Directional Dark Matter Detection in Anisotropic Dirac Materials
• Detectability of Axion Dark Matter with Phonon Polaritons and Magnons
• Plasmon signature in Dirac-Weyl liquids
• Effect of Gravitational Focusing on Annual Modulation in Dark-Matter Direct-Detection Experiments
• Detection of sub-GeV Dark Matter and Solar Neutrinos via Chemical-Bond Breaking
• Dark Matter-Electron Scattering from Aromatic Organic Targets
• A Concept for A Dark Matter Detector Using Liquid Helium-4
• The role of ionization electrons in direct dark matter detection
• Phenomenology of ELDER Dark Matter
• Constraints on dark photons and axion-like particles from SuperCDMS Soudan
• The cosmology of sub-MeV dark matter freeze-in
• Extended Calculation of Dark Matter-Electron Scattering in Crystal Targets
• Search for a Non-Relativistic Component in the Spectrum of Cosmic Rays at Earth
• Effective Field Theory of Dark Matter Direct Detection With Collective Excitations
• Thermal detection of single e-h pairs in a biased silicon crystal detector
• 3D Dirac cone carrier dynamics in Na3Bi and Cd3As2
• Proposal for gravitational direct detection of dark matter
• Sources of Low-Energy Events in Low-Threshold Dark Matter and Neutrino Detectors
• Magnetic Bubble Chambers and Sub-GeV Dark Matter Direct Detection
• Detecting Light Boson Dark Matter through Conversion into Magnon
• A Dark Matter Interpretation of Excesses in Multiple Direct Detection Experiments
• Bounds on velocity-dependent dark matter-proton scattering from Milky Way satellite abundance
• Search for Dark Matter with CRESST
• SENSEI: Characterization of Single-Electron Events Using a Skipper-CCD
• The Cosmology of Sub-MeV Dark Matter
• Direct Detection of Spin-(In)dependent Nuclear Scattering of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Using Molecular Excitations
• Migdal effect and photon Bremsstrahlung: improving the sensitivity to light dark matter of liquid argon experiments
• Two distinct components of the delayed single electron background signals in liquid xenon emission detectors
• Optimizing EDELWEISS detectors for low-mass WIMP searches
• Multiphonon excitations from dark matter scattering in crystals
• Model-independent determination of the Migdal effect via photoabsorption
• Sub-MeV Dark Matter and the Goldstone Modes of Superfluid Helium
• Directional scintillation detector for the detection of the wind of WIMPs
• Applications for Microwave Kinetic Induction Detectors in Advanced Instrumentation
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter in Superfluid He-4: an Effective Theory Approach
• The Dark Matter Phonon Coupling
• Dependence of Dark Matter - Electron Scattering on the Galactic Dark Matter Velocity Distribution
• Dark Matter Daily Modulation With Anisotropic Organic Crystals
• Describing the Migdal effect with a bremsstrahlung-like process and many-body effects
• Materials Informatics for Dark Matter Detection
• Universality of plasmon excitations in Dirac semimetals
• New constraints and discovery potential of sub-GeV dark matter with xenon detectors
• Plasmon production from dark matter scattering
• Search for sub-GeV dark matter by annual modulation using XMASS-I detector
• Performance of a Large Area Photon Detector For Rare Event Search Applications
• The dark matter component of the Gaia radially anisotropic substructure
• Dynamics of millicharged dark matter in supernova remnants
• Mapping The Neutrino Floor For Dark Matter-Electron Direct Detection Experiments
• Dark Matter, Dark Photon and Superfluid He-4 from Effective Field Theory
• Describing Migdal effects in diamond crystal with atom-centered localized Wannier functions
• Electronic and nuclear contributions in sub-GeV dark matter scattering: A case study with hydrogen
• Cryogenic Scintillation Properties of n-Type GaAs for the Direct Detection of MeV/c2 Dark Matter
• Perturbations on a moving D3-brane and mirage cosmology
• Constraints from a many-body method on spin-independent dark matter scattering off electrons using data from germanium and xenon detectors
• Prediction of Tunable Spin-Orbit Gapped Materials for Dark Matter Detection
• Searching for low mass dark matter via phonon creation in superfluid 4He
• Correlated Single- and Few-Electron Backgrounds Milliseconds after Interactions in Dual-Phase Liquid Xenon Time Projection Chambers
• Directional detection of light dark matter from three-phonon events in superfluid ${}^4$He
• The wavefunction reconstruction effects in calculation of DM-induced electronic transition in semiconductor targets
• LBECA: A Low Background Electron Counting Apparatus for Sub-GeV Dark Matter Detection
• Dark Matter Substructure under the Electron Scattering Lamppost
• Light WIMP searches involving electron scattering
• Halo-Independent Analysis of Direct Dark Matter Detection Through Electron Scattering
• Novel substrates for Helium adsorption: Graphane and Graphene-Fluoride
• Light Dark Matter and Superfluid He-4 from EFT
• Rejecting the Majorana nature of dark matter with electron scattering experiments

Cited by in corpus (43)

• Precise predictions and new insights for atomic ionisation from the Migdal effect
• EXCEED-DM: Extended Calculation of Electronic Excitations for Direct Detection of Dark Matter
• Dark matter direct detection from the single phonon to the nuclear recoil regime
• Neutron star observations of pseudoscalar-mediated dark matter
• Dark matter - electron interactions in materials beyond the dark photon model
• The Molecular Migdal Effect
• Dark Matter Induced Power in Quantum Devices
• Directional detection of dark matter with anisotropic response functions
• Dark Matter Candidates and Searches
• Constraints on Dark Matter-Electron Scattering from Molecular Cloud Ionization
• Measuring the Migdal effect in semiconductors for dark matter detection
• Phonon-mediated Migdal effect in semiconductor detectors
• Energy loss in low energy nuclear recoils in dark matter detector materials
• Dark matter substructures affect dark matter-electron scattering in xenon-based direct detection experiments
• Optimal anti-ferromagnets for light dark matter detection
• Accelerated Light Dark Matter-Earth Inelastic Scattering in Direct Detection
• Dark Matter Direct Detection with Quantum Dots
• First Sub-MeV Dark Matter Search with the QROCODILE Experiment Using Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors
• Fuelling the search for light dark matter-electron scattering with spherical proportional counters
• Revisiting general dark matter-bound-electron interactions
• Linear response theory for light dark matter-electron scattering in materials
• Freeze-in, glaciation, and UV sensitivity from light mediators
• Plasmon-enhanced Direct Detection Method for Boosted sub-MeV Dark Matter
• Seeing dark matter via acceleration radiation
• MeV Gamma-Ray Constraints for Light Dark Matter from Semi-Annihilation
• Neutrinos from the Sun can discover dark matter-electron scattering
• Broad-Range Directional Detection of Light Dark Matter in Cryogenic Ice
• The Revival of $U(1{)}_{L_e-L_{\mu }}$: A Natural Solution for $(g-2{)}_{\mu }$ with a Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• The Non-Relativistic Effective Field Theory Of Dark Matter-Electron Interactions
• Incoherent Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption with Nucleon Fermi Motion
• Super-Kamiokande Strongly Constrains Leptophilic Dark Matter Capture in the Sun
• Hunting axion dark matter with anti-ferromagnets: a case study with nickel oxide
• The linear response theory approach to the sub-GeV dark matter in the Sun
• Chiral kinetic theory in the presence of dark photon
• Charge transport in chiral solids as a possible tool in search of dark matter signals
• A backing detector for order-keV neutrons
• Exploring the Null Results in the Direct Detection Experiments, $(g-2{)}_{\ell }$ and Neutrino Mass in an Extended $U(1{)}_{L_{\mu }-L_{\tau }}$ Model Constrained through the $Z\to {\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ Decays
• Direct Detection of Ultralight Dark Matter via Charged Lepton Flavor Violation
• Nuclear and electron scattering by neutrinos and dark matter in condensed systems
• Primordial Black Holes: A Review of Formation and Evolution
• Performance of a SuperCDMS HVeV Detector with Sub-eV Energy Resolution and Single Charge-sensitivity
• Cutting rules for non-relativistic dark matter in solids based on Kohn-Sham orbitals
• Comparison of the Migdal transition probabilities in electron-atom inelastic cross sections