The non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter-electron interactions
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: A bstract Electronic excitations in atomic, molecular, and crystal targets are at the forefront of the ongoing search for light, sub-GeV dark matter (DM). In many light DM-electron interactions the energy and momentum deposited is much smaller than the electron mass, motivating a non-relativistic (NR) description of the electron. Thus, for any target, light DM-electron phenomenology relies on understanding the interactions between the DM and electron in the NR limit. In this work we derive the NR effective field theory (EFT) of general DM-electron interactions from a top-down perspective, starting from general high-energy DM-electron interaction Lagrangians. This provides an explicit connection between high-energy theories and their low-energy phenomenology in electron excitation based experiments. Furthermore, we derive Feynman rules for the DM-electron NR EFT, allowing observables to be computed diagrammatically, which can systematically explain the presence of in-medium screening effects in general DM models. We use these Feynman rules to compute absorption, scattering, and dark Thomson scattering rates for a wide variety of high-energy DM models.
Source: Journal of High Energy Physics
Authors: Gordan Krnjaic, Duncan Rocha, Tanner Trickle
Institutions: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, University of Chicago
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Awards: G1538770391, G154696372, G2595738051, G2917895714, G473123490, G498139845, G5616713406, G585908603, G601061201, G6017181652, G638484911, G716412294, G7619220232, Programs on Critical Problems in Physics, Astrophysics and Biophysics at the Aspen Center for Physics, G8570346810, G86560745, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W4402385592