Abstract
A key strategy for sub-GeV dark matter direct detection is searches for small ionization signals that arise from dark matter-electron scattering or from the "Migdal" effect in dark matter-nucleus scattering. We show that the theoretical description of both processes is closely related, allowing for a principal mapping between them. We explore this for noble-liquid targets and, for the first time, estimate the Migdal effect in semiconductors using a crystal form factor. We present new constraints using XENON10, XENON100, and SENSEI data, and give projections for proposed experiments.
Highlights
Introduction.—Detectors searching for direct signals from dark matter (DM) are conventionally optimized to look for electroweak-scale DM that scatters elastically off atomic nuclei
These signals have already opened a new pathway for current detectors to register DM scattering on nuclei [4,5,6,7] for DM masses below 100 MeV, and DM scattering on electrons [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16] for masses as low as 500 keV
The theoretical description of the bremsstrahlung and Migdal effect is so far exclusively tied to a picture where DM scatters on a single, isolated atom [1,2], which for inner-shell electrons should provide a correct estimate of the expected signal rate
Summary
Introduction.—Detectors searching for direct signals from dark matter (DM) are conventionally optimized to look for electroweak-scale DM that scatters elastically off atomic nuclei. Relation between the Migdal Effect and Dark Matter-Electron Scattering in Isolated Atoms and Semiconductors Rouven Essig,1,* Josef Pradler,2,† Mukul Sholapurkar,1,‡ and Tien-Tien Yu3,§
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