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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04690 |
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| _version_ | 1866916239388966912 |
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| author | Bell, Nicole F. Cox, Peter Dolan, Matthew J. Newstead, Jayden L. Ritter, Alexander C. |
| author_facet | Bell, Nicole F. Cox, Peter Dolan, Matthew J. Newstead, Jayden L. Ritter, Alexander C. |
| contents | An ongoing challenge in dark matter direct detection is to improve the sensitivity to light dark matter in the MeV--GeV mass range. One proposal is to dope a liquid noble-element direct detection experiment with a lighter element such as hydrogen. This has the advantage of enabling larger recoil energies compared to scattering on a heavy target, while leveraging existing detector technologies. Direct detection experiments can also extend their reach to lower masses by exploiting the Migdal effect, where a nuclear recoil leads to electronic ionisation or excitation. In this work we combine these ideas to study the sensitivity of a hydrogen-doped LZ experiment (HydroX), and a future large-scale experiment such as XLZD. We find that HydroX could have sensitivity to dark matter masses as low as 5~MeV for both spin-independent and spin-dependent scattering, with XLZD extending that reach to lower cross sections. Notably, this technique substantially enhances the sensitivity of direct detection to spin-dependent proton scattering, well beyond the reach of any current experiments. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2305_04690 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Exploring light dark matter with the Migdal effect in hydrogen-doped liquid xenon Bell, Nicole F. Cox, Peter Dolan, Matthew J. Newstead, Jayden L. Ritter, Alexander C. High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Experiment An ongoing challenge in dark matter direct detection is to improve the sensitivity to light dark matter in the MeV--GeV mass range. One proposal is to dope a liquid noble-element direct detection experiment with a lighter element such as hydrogen. This has the advantage of enabling larger recoil energies compared to scattering on a heavy target, while leveraging existing detector technologies. Direct detection experiments can also extend their reach to lower masses by exploiting the Migdal effect, where a nuclear recoil leads to electronic ionisation or excitation. In this work we combine these ideas to study the sensitivity of a hydrogen-doped LZ experiment (HydroX), and a future large-scale experiment such as XLZD. We find that HydroX could have sensitivity to dark matter masses as low as 5~MeV for both spin-independent and spin-dependent scattering, with XLZD extending that reach to lower cross sections. Notably, this technique substantially enhances the sensitivity of direct detection to spin-dependent proton scattering, well beyond the reach of any current experiments. |
| title | Exploring light dark matter with the Migdal effect in hydrogen-doped liquid xenon |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Experiment |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04690 |