Ab initio nuclear response functions for dark matter searches

TL;DR

This paper develops an ab initio framework to compute nuclear response functions for dark matter scattering off helium isotopes, incorporating realistic interactions and uncertainty quantification, advancing the precision of dark matter detection models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ab initio method for calculating nuclear response functions with uncertainty analysis, enhancing the accuracy of dark matter search predictions.

Findings

Rich structure of nuclear responses identified

Significant uncertainties found in spin-dependent interactions

Framework enables improved uncertainty quantification in dark matter detection

Abstract

We study the process of dark matter particles scattering off $^{3,4}$He with nuclear wave functions computed using an ab initio many-body framework. We employ realistic nuclear interactions from chiral effective field theory at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and develop an ab initio scheme to compute a general set of different nuclear response functions. In particular, we then perform an accompanying uncertainty quantification on these quantities and study error propagation to physical observables. We find a rich structure of allowed nuclear responses with significant uncertainties for certain spin-dependent interactions. The approach and results that are presented in this Paper establish a new framework for nuclear structure calculations and uncertainty quantification in the context of direct and (certain) indirect searches for dark matter.