PreprintCC BY 4.0arXiv
Migdal Ionization as a Probe of Light Dark Matter from Nuclear Transition
Abstract
Nuclear reactors serve as a key artificial source of light dark matter. Direct detection of reactor-produced dark matter faces substantial obstacles, since quenching effects suppress conventional elastic scattering signals below detector thresholds. We present a new search strategy utilizing the Migdal effect in germanium detectors to probe light dark matter produced via nuclear de-excitation from reactors. Using ON-OFF residual spectra from the TEXONO experiment, we set a new stringent limit on the dark matter and nucleus interaction over the mass range 0.01 MeV≤ mχ≲ 2.6 MeV, which provides a complementary bound to existing cosmological and astrophysical limits.
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BibTeX
@misc{lou2026migdal,
title = {{Migdal Ionization as a Probe of Light Dark Matter from Nuclear Transition}},
author = {Yuanchao Lou and Liangliang Su and Lei Wu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2607.10716},
eprint = {2607.10716},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.10716},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Migdal Ionization as a Probe of Light Dark Matter from Nuclear Transition
AU - Yuanchao Lou
AU - Liangliang Su
AU - Lei Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2607.10716
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.10716
AB - Nuclear reactors serve as a key artificial source of light dark matter. Direct detection of reactor-produced dark matter faces substantial obstacles, since quenching effects suppress conventional elastic scattering signals below detector thresholds. We present a new search strategy utilizing the Migdal effect in germanium detectors to probe light dark matter produced via nuclear de-excitation from reactors. Using ON-OFF residual spectra from the TEXONO experiment, we set a new stringent limit on the dark matter and nucleus interaction over the mass range 0.01 MeV≤ m_χ≲ 2.6 MeV, which provides a complementary bound to existing cosmological and astrophysical limits.
ER -