Search for Dark-Matter-Nucleon Interactions with a Dark Mediator in PandaX-4T

Abstract

We report results of a search for dark-matter-nucleon interactions via a dark mediator using optimized low-energy data from the PandaX-4T liquid xenon experiment. With the ionization-signal-only data and utilizing the Migdal effect, we set the most stringent limits on the cross section for dark matter masses ranging from 30~$MeV/{\mathrm{c}}^2$ to 2~$GeV/{\mathrm{c}}^2$. Under the assumption that the dark mediator is a dark photon that decays into scalar dark matter pairs in the early Universe, we rule out significant parameter space of such thermal relic dark-matter model.

6 pages, 4 figures