Laser induced Compton Scattering to Dark Matter in Effective Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper explores a novel method using high-intensity lasers and nonlinear Compton scattering to detect light dark matter particles, providing a new experimental approach within effective field theory.

Contribution

It introduces a new experimental strategy employing intense laser fields and nonlinear Compton scattering to search for light dark matter within an effective field theory framework.

Findings

Sensitivity to DM cutoff scale for particles lighter than 1 MeV

Decays of electrons to DM pairs calculated for various effective operators

Comparison with existing direct detection experiments shows competitive potential

Abstract

The detection of light dark matter (DM) is a longstanding challenge in terrestrial experiments. High-intensity facility of an intense electromagnetic field may provide a plausible strategy to study strong-field particle physics and search for light DM. In this work, we propose to search for light DM particle through the nonlinear Compton scattering in the presence of a high-intense laser field. An ultra-relativistic electron beam collides with an intense laser pulse of a number of optical photons and then decays to a pair of DM particles. We take into account the Dirac-type fermionic DM in leptophilic scenario and the DM-electron interactions in the framework of effective field theory. The decay rates of electron to a DM pair are calculated for effective DM operators of different bilinear products. We show the sensitivities of laser induced Compton scattering to the effective cutoff scale for DM lighter than 1 MeV and compare with direct detection experiments.