Quantum materials for dark matter detection*

Quantum materials offer unique opportunities to search for light and very weakly interacting particles. This development has given new hope to the ongoing search for dark matter (DM) in a time when experimental nullresults mount increasing pressure on traditional models. The detection of sub-MeV DM particles with a typical velocity of v=10^-3 c in the solar neighborhood requires sensor materials sensitive to tiny energy excitations. I will discuss the formalism for DM measurement using small mass Dirac materials and show the identification of relevant using materials informatics [1]. To overcome impurity effects [2], we propose a novel discriminator for a dark matter detection signal against thermal noise based on a directional dependence of the dark matter signal due anisotropy [3].

[1] Geilhufe, et al., PSS (RRL), 12(11), 1800293, 2018.
[2] Olsthoorn, Balatsky, PRB, 101(4), 045120, 2020.
[3] Geilhufe, Kahlhoefer, Winkler, PRD, 101(5), 055005, 2020.