DELight: a Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter with superfluid helium

TL;DR

The paper introduces DELight, a novel experiment using superfluid helium and magnetic micro-calorimeters to detect ultra-light dark matter particles below 100 MeV, aiming to explore uncharted parameter space.

Contribution

DELight is the first experiment to combine superfluid helium with magnetic micro-calorimeters for light dark matter detection at sub-100 MeV masses.

Findings

Design of DELight targeting sub-100 MeV dark matter

Potential to explore new parameter space in light dark matter

Innovative use of superfluid helium as active target

Abstract

To reach ultra-low detection thresholds necessary to probe unprecedentedly low Dark Matter masses, target material alternatives and novel detector designs are essential. One such target material is superfluid $^4$He which has the potential to probe so far uncharted light Dark Matter parameter space at sub-GeV masses. The new ``Direct search Experiment for Light dark matter'', DELight, will be using superfluid helium as active target, instrumented with magnetic micro-calorimeters. It is being designed to reach sensitivity to masses well below 100\,MeV in Dark Matter-nucleus scattering interactions.