# Inelastic dark matter nucleus scattering

## TL;DR

This paper explores how inelastic dark matter nucleus scattering can improve detection prospects and particle physics insights in xenon-based detectors, beyond traditional elastic scattering methods.

## Contribution

It introduces a low-energy effective field theory framework to analyze inelastic scattering signals in dark matter detection experiments.

## Key findings

- Inelastic transitions increase the discovery potential once a dark matter signal is detected.
- Inelastic scattering helps better determine the underlying particle physics.
- Inelastic signals provide additional detectable signatures in xenon detectors.

## Abstract

Direct detection experiments aim at the detection of dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by searching for signals from elastic dark matter nucleus scattering. Additionally, inelastic scattering in which the nucleus is excited is expected from nuclear physics and provides an additional detectable signal. In the context of a low-energy effective field theory we investigate the experimental reach to these inelastic transitions for xenon-based detectors employing a dual-phase time projection chamber. We find that once a dark matter signal is established, inelastic transitions enhance the discovery reach and we show that they allow a better determination of the underlying particle physics.