Speaker: Tongyan Lin (UC San Diego)
Title: Direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter with the Migdal effect in semiconductors
Host:
Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/186024391
Abstract:
As direct detection experiments expand the search for sub-GeV dark matter and lower their energy thresholds, the many-body physics of crystals can be increasingly important and also be used to enhance discovery potential. In this talk, I will discuss the Migdal effect in semiconductors, which is the creation of charge signals from inelastic dark matter-nucleus scattering. The Migdal effect has previously been studied in atomic targets, and used to set limits in liquid Xe experiments. Because of the smaller gap for electron excitations, we find that the rate for the Migdal effect is much higher in semiconductors, and accounting for it can significantly improve the reach of experiments.
