Fuelling the search for light dark matter-electron scattering with spherical proportional counters

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of spherical proportional counters (SPCs) for detecting light dark matter via electron scattering, highlighting their high sensitivity, low background, and versatility with different gases, especially neon.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed sensitivity analysis of SPC detectors for light dark matter, including modeling with quantum chemistry and exploring various gas targets and mixtures.

Findings

DarkSphere can improve existing limits on DM above 4 MeV by up to five orders of magnitude.

Neon is identified as the optimal gas target for broad sensitivity.

Gas mixtures with methane or isobutane extend sensitivity to lower DM masses.

Abstract

Dark matter (DM) detectors employing a Spherical Proportional Counter (SPC) have demonstrated a single-electron detection threshold and are projected to have small background rates. We explore the sensitivity to DM-electron scattering with SPC detectors in the context of DarkSphere, a proposal for a 300 cm diameter fully-electroformed SPC. SPCs can run with different gases, so we investigate the sensitivity for five targets: helium, neon, xenon, methane, and isobutane. We use tools from quantum chemistry to model the atomic and molecular systems, and calculate the expected DM induced event rates. We find that DarkSphere has the potential to improve current exclusion limits on DM masses above 4 MeV by up to five orders of magnitude. Neon is the best all-round gas target and provides good sensitivity to scenarios with both light and heavy mediators. Gas mixtures, where methane or isobutane is added to a noble gas, can extend the sensitivity at lower masses. Our study highlights the currently untapped potential of SPCs to search for DM-electron scattering in the MeV-to-GeV DM mass range.