Presented By: Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics
HET Seminar | Direct Detection Signals from Absorption of Fermionic Dark Matter
Robert McGehee (UM)
Seminar link: http://myumi.ch/O4P7E
Absorption of fermionic dark matter leads to a range of distinct and novel signatures at dark matter direct detection and neutrino experiments. We study the possible signals from fermionic absorption by nuclear or electron targets, which we divide into two classes of four Fermi operators: neutral and charged current. In the neutral current signal, dark matter is absorbed by a target nucleus or electron and a neutrino is emitted. For nuclear targets, this results in a characteristically different nuclear recoil energy spectrum from that of elastic scattering. For electron targets, we calculate electron recoil spectra in xenon-based detectors for sub-MeV dark matter. The charged current channel is specific to nuclear targets and leads to induced beta decays in isotopes which are stable in vacuum as well as shifts of the kinematic endpoint of beta spectra in unstable isotopes. Last, we present UV completions of the four Fermi operators which give rise to these signals and study the prospects of seeing an absorption signal in light of other constraints, such as dark matter decays and mediator searches.
Absorption of fermionic dark matter leads to a range of distinct and novel signatures at dark matter direct detection and neutrino experiments. We study the possible signals from fermionic absorption by nuclear or electron targets, which we divide into two classes of four Fermi operators: neutral and charged current. In the neutral current signal, dark matter is absorbed by a target nucleus or electron and a neutrino is emitted. For nuclear targets, this results in a characteristically different nuclear recoil energy spectrum from that of elastic scattering. For electron targets, we calculate electron recoil spectra in xenon-based detectors for sub-MeV dark matter. The charged current channel is specific to nuclear targets and leads to induced beta decays in isotopes which are stable in vacuum as well as shifts of the kinematic endpoint of beta spectra in unstable isotopes. Last, we present UV completions of the four Fermi operators which give rise to these signals and study the prospects of seeing an absorption signal in light of other constraints, such as dark matter decays and mediator searches.
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