Even Lighter Particle Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in detecting low-mass dark matter particles, emphasizing CCD silicon detectors' potential to improve sensitivity in direct detection experiments for particles between 1 MeV and 1 GeV.

Contribution

It highlights the progress and future prospects of CCD silicon detectors in searching for low-mass dark matter particles, focusing on electron recoil signals.

Findings

CCD detectors offer high sensitivity due to low ionization threshold.

Significant progress in CCD technology is expected soon.

Current efforts include multiple experimental approaches.

Abstract

We report on recent progress in the search for dark matter particles with masses from 1 MeV to 1 GeV. Several dark matter candidates in this mass range are expected to generate measurable electronic-recoil signals in direct-detection experiments. We focus on dark matter particles scattering with electrons in semiconductor detectors since they have fundamentally the highest sensitivity due to their low ionization threshold. Charge-coupled device (CCD) silicon detectors are the leading technology, with significant progress expected in the coming years. We present the status of the CCD program and briefly report on other efforts.