Impact of shell model interactions on nuclear responses to WIMP elastic scattering

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Main Authors: Khaleq, Raghda Abdel, Busoni, Giorgio, Simenel, Cedric, Stuchbery, Andrew E.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Khaleq, Raghda Abdel
Busoni, Giorgio
Simenel, Cedric
Stuchbery, Andrew E.
author_facet Khaleq, Raghda Abdel
Busoni, Giorgio
Simenel, Cedric
Stuchbery, Andrew E.
contents Background: Nuclear recoil from scattering with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) is a signature searched for in direct detection of dark matter. The underlying WIMP-nucleon interactions could be spin and/or orbital angular momentum (in)dependent. Evaluation of nuclear recoil rates through these interactions requires accounting for nuclear structure, e.g., through shell model calculations. Purpose: To evaluate nuclear response functions induced by these interactions for $^{19}$F, $^{23}$Na, $^{28, 29, 30}$Si, $^{40}$Ar, $^{70,72,73,74,76}$Ge, $^{127}$I, and $^{128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 136}$Xe nuclei that are relevant to current direct detection experiments, and to estimate their sensitivity to shell model interactions. Methods: Shell model calculations are performed with the NuShellX solver. Nuclear response functions from non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) are evaluated and integrated over transferred momentum for quantitative comparisons. Results: Although the standard spin independent response is barely sensitive to the structure of the nuclei, large variations with the shell model interaction are often observed for the other channels. Conclusions: Significant uncertainties may arise from the nuclear components of WIMP-nucleus scattering amplitudes due to nuclear structure theory and modelling. These uncertainties should be accounted for in analyses of direct detection experiments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_15764
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of shell model interactions on nuclear responses to WIMP elastic scattering
Khaleq, Raghda Abdel
Busoni, Giorgio
Simenel, Cedric
Stuchbery, Andrew E.
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Theory
Background: Nuclear recoil from scattering with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) is a signature searched for in direct detection of dark matter. The underlying WIMP-nucleon interactions could be spin and/or orbital angular momentum (in)dependent. Evaluation of nuclear recoil rates through these interactions requires accounting for nuclear structure, e.g., through shell model calculations. Purpose: To evaluate nuclear response functions induced by these interactions for $^{19}$F, $^{23}$Na, $^{28, 29, 30}$Si, $^{40}$Ar, $^{70,72,73,74,76}$Ge, $^{127}$I, and $^{128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 136}$Xe nuclei that are relevant to current direct detection experiments, and to estimate their sensitivity to shell model interactions. Methods: Shell model calculations are performed with the NuShellX solver. Nuclear response functions from non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) are evaluated and integrated over transferred momentum for quantitative comparisons. Results: Although the standard spin independent response is barely sensitive to the structure of the nuclei, large variations with the shell model interaction are often observed for the other channels. Conclusions: Significant uncertainties may arise from the nuclear components of WIMP-nucleus scattering amplitudes due to nuclear structure theory and modelling. These uncertainties should be accounted for in analyses of direct detection experiments.
title Impact of shell model interactions on nuclear responses to WIMP elastic scattering
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Nuclear Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.15764