Optimal anti-ferromagnets for light dark matter detection

Abstract

We propose anti-ferromagnets as optimal targets to hunt for sub-MeV dark matter with spin-dependent interactions. These materials allow for multi-magnon emission even for very small momentum transfers, and are therefore sensitive to dark matter particles as light as the keV. We use an effective theory to compute the event rates in a simple way. Among the materials studied here, we identify nickel oxide (a well-assessed anti-ferromagnet) as an ideal candidate target. Indeed, the propagation speed of its gapless magnons is very close to the typical dark matter velocity, allowing the absorption of all its kinetic energy, even through the emission of just a single magnon.

References in corpus (30)

• Results from a search for dark matter in the complete LUX exposure
• Echoes of a Hidden Valley at Hadron Colliders
• Hybrid quantum systems based on magnonics
• The WIMPless Miracle: Dark Matter Particles without Weak-scale Masses or Weak Interactions
• Asymmetric Dark Matter from Leptogenesis
• Detection of sub-MeV Dark Matter with Three-Dimensional Dirac Materials
• Semiconductor Probes of Light Dark Matter
• Electromagnetic properties of dark matter: dipole moments and charge form factor
• Magnetic Inelastic Dark Matter
• A Natural Supersymmetric Model with MeV Dark Matter
• Light Dark Matter in Superfluid Helium: Detection with Multi-excitation Production
• Results of Dark Matter Search using the Full PandaX-II Exposure
• Dipolar Dark Matter
• SiC Detectors for Sub-GeV Dark Matter
• The Migdal effect in semiconductors
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter Detection with Electron Recoils in Carbon Nanotubes
• Axion Quasiparticles for Axion Dark Matter Detection
• 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 Detection Using Helium Evaporation and Field Ionization
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter in Superfluid He-4: an Effective Theory Approach
• Dark matter direct detection from the single phonon to the nuclear recoil regime
• The Migdal Effect in Semiconductors for Dark Matter with Masses below $\sim$100 MeV
• Dark Matter, Dark Photon and Superfluid He-4 from Effective Field Theory
• Searching for low mass dark matter via phonon creation in superfluid 4He
• Phonon-mediated Migdal effect in semiconductor detectors
• Directional detection of light dark matter from three-phonon events in superfluid ${}^4$He
• Perturbative search for dead-end CFTs
• Superfluid Effective Field Theory for Dark Matter Direct Detection

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Effective Field Theory for Dark Matter Absorption on Single Phonons
• Absorption of Axion Dark Matter in a Magnetized Medium
• Physical Signatures of Fermion-Coupled Axion Dark Matter
• Dark matter detection using nuclear magnetization in magnet with hyperfine interaction
• Plasmon-enhanced Direct Detection Method for Boosted sub-MeV Dark Matter
• Effects of Finite Material Size On Axion-magnon Conversion
• 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
• Nuclear and electron scattering by neutrinos and dark matter in condensed systems
• An EFT for anisotropic anti-ferromagnets: gapped Goldstones, pseudo-Goldstones, and phase transitions