Schutz, Katelin and Zurek, Kathryn M. (2016) Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium. Physical Review Letters, 117 (12). Art. No. 121302. ISSN 0031-9007. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.121302. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20190613-164150666
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Abstract
We show that a two-excitation process in superfluid helium, combined with sensitivity to meV energy depositions, can probe dark matter down to the ∼ keV warm dark matter mass limit. This mass reach is 3 orders of magnitude below what can be probed with ordinary nuclear recoils in helium at the same energy resolution. For dark matter lighter than ∼100 keV, the kinematics of the process requires the two athermal excitations to have nearly equal and opposite momentum, potentially providing a built-in coincidence mechanism for controlling backgrounds.
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| Alternate Title: | On the Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium | ||||||||||||
| Additional Information: | © 2016 American Physical Society. (Received 9 May 2016; revised manuscript received 4 August 2016; published 14 September 2016) We thank Eckhard Krotschek for providing the data of Ref. [40] utilized in our numeric estimates, Bob Golub for giving us access to the internal notes to accompany his published paper and for discussions explaining his results, Dan McKinsey for pointing out that the response of liquid helium to multiphonons or rotons is important, Henry Glyde for a discussion about ultracold neutrons in superfluid helium, and Matt Pyle for many conversations about detecting small energy deposits in superconductors and superfluids. We also thank Yonit Hochberg, Michele Papucci, Peter Scherpelz, and Yue Zhao for comments on the manuscript, and Tongyan Lin for collaboration in work to appear [31]. K. S. is supported by a Hertz Foundation Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. K. S. and K. Z. are supported by the DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. | ||||||||||||
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| Issue or Number: | 12 | ||||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1103/physrevlett.117.121302 | ||||||||||||
| Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:20190613-164150666 | ||||||||||||
| Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20190613-164150666 | ||||||||||||
| Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | ||||||||||||
| ID Code: | 96426 | ||||||||||||
| Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS | ||||||||||||
| Deposited By: | George Porter | ||||||||||||
| Deposited On: | 18 Jun 2019 15:09 | ||||||||||||
| Last Modified: | 16 Nov 2021 17:20 |
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