Comparison of the Migdal transition probabilities in electron-atom inelastic cross sections

TL;DR

This paper compares Migdal transition probabilities with electron-atom inelastic cross sections for Ar and Xe, revealing significant differences at around 1 keV electron energy and identifying dominant electron shells.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison between Migdal probabilities and experimental cross sections for Ar and Xe, highlighting the differences and dominant electron contributions.

Findings

Differences of about 30% for Ar and 80% for Xe at 1 keV

Dominance of 3p electrons in Ar

Significant contribution of 4d states in Xe at 1 keV

Abstract

The Migdal transition probabilities for dark matter scattering are compared to the total single-electron inelastic cross sections of electron-atom scattering for isolated Ar and Xe. The comparison is done by expressing the electron-atom scattering cross section by connecting the Migdal probability. The resultant differences are around $30 \ \%$ for Ar and $80 \ \%$ for Xe in $\sim$ 1 keV of incoming electron energy. The transition is dominated from the $3p$ shell electrons for Ar. For Xe, $5p$ states dominate the contribution, but, $4d$ states give $\sim 40\ \%$ contribution at 1 keV.