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.