by Dr Mukul Sholapurkar, Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics, Vienna, Austria

Abstract:

Direct-detection experiments search for signals produced by particle dark matter interacting with terrestrial detectors. While conventional searches have primarily targeted dark matter with masses above the GeV scale, the past decade has seen substantial progress in probing well-motivated sub-GeV models through new channels, detection mechanisms, and target materials. In this seminar, I will first review the landscape of sub-GeV dark matter direct detection. I will then focus on the Migdal effect—the electronic excitation or ionization accompanying a nuclear recoil—which has emerged as a promising channel for probing interactions of sub-GeV dark matter with nuclei. First predicted in 1939, the effect was only recently directly observed in neutron–nucleus scattering. I will discuss its significance for dark matter searches and recent advances in its theoretical description.