Detecting Light Dark Matter with Magnons.

Tanner Trickle,Zhengkang Zhang,Kathryn M Zurek

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.124.201801

Abstract

Scattering of light dark matter with sub-eV energy deposition can be detected with collective excitations in condensed matter systems. When dark matter has spin-independent couplings to atoms or ions, it has been shown to efficiently excite phonons. Here we show that, if dark matter couples to the electron spin, magnon excitations in materials with magnetic dipole order offer a promising detection path. We derive general formulae for single magnon excitation rates from dark matter scattering, and demonstrate as a proof of principle the projected reach of a yttrium iron garnet target for several dark matter models with spin-dependent interactions. This highlights the complementarity of various collective excitations in probing different dark matter interactions.

Highlights

Detecting Light Dark Matter with MagnonsScattering of light dark matter with sub-eV energy deposition can be detected with collective excitations in condensed matter systems
Introduction.—Direct detection of dark matter (DM) has undergone a dramatic expansion of scope in recent years
Well-motivated theories where sub-GeV DM arises in a hidden sector or hidden valley, with new weakly or strongly coupled dynamics, have given impetus to new ideas to search for light DM

Summary

Detecting Light Dark Matter with Magnons

Scattering of light dark matter with sub-eV energy deposition can be detected with collective excitations in condensed matter systems. Better DM-target kinematic matching allows us to probe qualitatively new parameter space, through lighter targets (e.g., electrons) with ∼eV (as in semiconductors and atoms [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] as well as molecules [19,20,21]) or ∼meV (as in superconductors [22,23,24] and Dirac materials [25]) energy gaps Reading out such small energy depositions is achieved through improvements to cryogenic superconducting calorimeters, such as transition edge sensors (TES) and microwave kinetic inductance devices (MKIDs).

Published by the American Physical Society

Xn X

Anapole DM