Incoherent Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption with Nucleon Fermi Motion

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the incoherent fermionic dark matter absorption by nuclei, highlighting its significance at certain mass ranges and comparing different target nuclei to optimize detection strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed relativistic Fermi gas model analysis of incoherent dark matter absorption, emphasizing the role of nuclear mass and form factors in detection.

Findings

Incoherent absorption becomes significant for dark matter masses above 100 MeV.

Heavier nuclei are more effective in probing incoherent scattering.

Both coherent and incoherent signals are important for confirming fermionic dark matter absorption.

Abstract

We investigate the incoherent regime of the fermionic dark matter absorption by nuclei using the relativistic Fermi gas model and nuclear form factors. With the momentum transfer being roughly equal to the dark matter mass $m_\chi$, the incoherent regime contributes significantly to the absorption process for $m_\chi \gtrsim 100$\,MeV with a spin-independent operator and for even smaller mass with a spin-dependent one. We also compare the situations for various target nuclei ($^{131}$Xe, $^{72}$Ge, $^{40}$Ar, $^{20}$Ne and $^4$He) that are typically used in the dark matter direct detection. A heavier nucleus actually has the advantage of probing the incoherent scattering of the fermionic absorption dark matter. Observing both the coherent and incoherent contributions would be an important justification of the fermionic dark matter absorption.