Effective Field Theory for Dark Matter Absorption on Single Phonons

TL;DR

This paper develops an effective field theory framework to calculate dark matter absorption into single phonons in materials, applying it to various models and providing a publicly available code for rate computations.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive EFT approach for DM absorption into phonons, covering multiple DM models and making the computational tool publicly accessible.

Findings

GaAs and Al2O3 can set strong constraints on U(1)_{B-L} models.

Materials with electronic spin ordering are sensitive to DM magnetic dipole interactions.

The code PhonoDark-abs enables rate calculations for diverse DM-phonon interactions.

Abstract

Single phonon excitations, with energies in the $1-100 \, \text{meV}$ range, are a powerful probe of light dark matter (DM). Utilizing effective field theory, we derive a framework to compute DM absorption rates into single phonons starting from general DM-electron, proton, and neutron interactions. We apply the framework to a variety of DM models: Yukawa coupled scalars, axionlike particles (ALPs) with derivative interactions, and vector DM coupling via gauge interactions or Standard Model electric and magnetic dipole moments. We find that GaAs or $\text{Al}_2\text{O}_3$ targets can set powerful constraints on a $U(1)_{B-L}$ model, and targets with electronic spin ordering are similarly sensitive to DM coupling to the electron magnetic dipole moment. Lastly, we make the code, \textsf{PhonoDark-abs} (an extension of the existing \textsf{PhonoDark} code which computes general DM-single phonon scattering rates), publicly available.