Dark matter direct detection in materials with spin-orbit coupling
Abstract
Semiconductors with O(meV) band gaps have been shown to be promising targets to search for sub-MeV mass dark matter (DM). In this paper we focus on a class of materials where such narrow band gaps arise naturally as a consequence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Specifically, we are interested in computing DM-electron scattering and absorption rates in these materials using state-of-the-art density functional theory techniques. To do this, we extend the DM interaction rate calculation to include SOC effects which necessitates a generalization to spin-dependent wave functions. We apply our new formalism to calculate limits for several DM benchmark models using an example ZrTe₅ target and show that the inclusion of SOC can substantially alter projected constraints.
Additional Information
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3. Received 15 March 2022; accepted 13 July 2022; published 25 July 2022. H.-Y. C. and M. B. were supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR-1750613. A. M., T. T., K. Z., and Z. Z. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, under Award No. DE-SC0021431, and the Quantum Information Science Enabled Discovery (QuantISED) for High Energy Physics (KA2401032). K. Z. was also supported by a Simons Investigator Award. Z. Z. was also supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under the Grant No. DE-SC0011702. The computations presented here were conducted in the Resnick High Performance Computing Center, a facility supported by Resnick Sustainability Institute at the California Institute of Technology.Attached Files
Published - PhysRevD.106.015024.pdf
Submitted - 2202.11716.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 113991
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20220322-205046206
- NSF
- DMR-1750613
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-SC0021431
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- KA2401032
- Simons Foundation
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-SC0011702
- Resnick Sustainability Institute
- SCOAP3
- Created
-
2022-03-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-08-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Resnick Sustainability Institute, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
- Other Numbering System Name
- CALT-TH
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 2022-007