REVIEW 14 cited by
Absorption of light dark matter in semiconductors
Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.
This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.
SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event
T0 review · schema-true
One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.
pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp
Signed reviews
read the original abstract
Semiconductors are by now well-established targets for direct detection of MeV to GeV dark matter via scattering off electrons. We show that semiconductor targets can also detect significantly lighter dark matter via an absorption process. When the dark matter mass is above the band gap of the semiconductor (around an eV), absorption proceeds by excitation of an electron into the conduction band. Below the band gap, multi-phonon excitations enable absorption of dark matter in the 0.01 eV to eV mass range. Energetic dark matter particles emitted from the sun can also be probed for masses below an eV. We derive the reach for absorption of a relic kinetically mixed dark photon or pseudoscalar in germanium and silicon, and show that existing direct detection results already probe new parameter space. With only a moderate exposure, low-threshold semiconductor target experiments can exceed current astrophysical and terrestrial constraints on sub-keV bosonic dark matter.
Forward citations
Cited by 14 Pith papers
-
Suppressed Quantum Effects of Weakly Coupled Waves
Nonclassical (quantum) signatures of weakly coupled waves are suppressed by an extra power of the tiny conversion efficiency η (~10^-21 for axions, ~10^-33 for gravitons), so experiments cannot establish the quantizat...
-
First High-Throughput Evaluation of Dark Matter Detector Materials
A high-throughput screen of about 1,000 Materials Project compounds identifies LiMoO2, CaAsAu, Bi2TeO2, and others as the most promising targets for sub-GeV dark matter detection via electron scattering and absorption.
-
Probing Supernova Neutrino Boosted Dark Matter with Collective Excitation
Galactic supernova neutrino boosted dark matter can produce plasmon excitations in silicon detectors, improving sub-MeV dark matter sensitivity by 3 to 4 orders of magnitude over Super-K.
-
Dark Astronomy with Dark Matter Detectors
A proposal to detect the dark photon starlight from dissipative dark matter, with a new directional surface conversion mechanism in metals.
-
Thermal Emission of Dark Photons from Earth's Core
Thermal dark-photon emission from Earth's core, recast onto SENSEI/DAMIC-M bounds, already constrains new ε parameter space; Oscura could improve by 2–3 orders of magnitude near 10^{-4} eV.
-
Direct Detection of Leptophobic Dark Matter with Electronic Collective Excitations
Leptophobic dark matter can excite plasmons in silicon through hadronic loops, and SENSEI data now constrain its nucleon cross section down to ~1e-31 cm^2 in the sub-MeV mass range.
-
Unconventional Materials for Light Dark Matter Detection
TiSe2, Sr2RuO4, and hole-doped diamond are projected to improve sub-MeV dark matter detection reaches by one to three orders of magnitude over existing proposals, with directional sensitivity from their anisotropic responses.
-
Light Dark Matter Detection with Sub-eV Transition-Edge Sensors
Optical transition-edge sensors with sub-eV thresholds are projected to probe unexplored light dark matter parameter space with nanogram-month exposures.
-
Detecting light dark matter with prompt-delayed events in neutrino experiments
The prompt-delayed knockout-neutron channel in KamLAND yields a sub-GeV dark matter-nucleon cross-section limit roughly one order of magnitude stronger than elastic nuclear recoil limits.
-
Searching for a solar relaxion/scalar with XENON1T and LUX
XENON1T S2 data constrain the solar scalar-electron coupling below 2e-15 at 90% CL, about three times weaker than the best stellar cooling bound.
-
On the relation between Migdal effect and dark matter-electron scattering in isolated atoms and semiconductors
The Migdal ionization rate from dark matter-nucleus scattering equals the dark matter-electron ionization form factor evaluated at momentum q_e = (m_e/m_N) q, enabling the first semiconductor Migdal estimate and new s...
-
Hunting axion dark matter with anti-ferromagnets: a case study with nickel oxide
Axion dark matter with meV-scale masses could be absorbed by magnons in nickel oxide, producing both resonant and broadband detection channels.
-
The CRESST experiment: towards the next-generation of sub-GeV direct dark matter detection
CRESST's projected 288-channel upgrade with gram-scale CaWO4 detectors could reach spin-independent dark matter cross sections near 10^-42 cm^2 at 1 GeV/c^2, if the low-energy excess is reduced by a factor of 10 to 100.
-
2024 TASI Lectures: A Dark Matter Primer
A graduate-level primer covering the evidence for dark matter, the main cosmological production mechanisms (freeze-out, freeze-in, misalignment), and the direct detection formalism, with no new results.
Discussion (0). Continue with ORCID to comment.