Dark matter searches and energy accumulation and release in materials

TL;DR

This paper explores the possibility that energy accumulation and delayed releases in materials could explain unexplained low-energy backgrounds in dark matter detectors, linking physical models with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective connecting energy dynamics in materials with dark matter detection backgrounds, proposing models based on Self-Organized Criticality and related phenomena.

Findings

Delayed luminescence observed in NaI(Tl) supports energy release models.

Comparison with cryogenic detectors suggests common underlying processes.

Predictions for phenomena in superconducting detectors and qubits are proposed.

Abstract

Efforts to identify dark matter by detecting nuclear recoils produced by dark matter particles reveal low-energy backgrounds of unknown origin in different types of detectors. In many cases, energy accumulation and delayed burst-like releases of stored energy could provide an explanation. These dynamics follow Prigogine's ideas on systems with energy and the general Self-Organized Criticality scenario. We compare these models with properties of excess backgrounds in cryogenic solid-state detectors, relaxation processes in glasses and crystals, our observations of delayed luminescence in NaI(Tl), and make predictions for more phenomena present in these systems and in superconducting photon detectors and qubits. Experiments to create accurate phenomenological models are needed.