Dark Matter Inelastic Scattering with Nuclei for Direct Detection
Abstract
We investigate the nuclear responses for the WIMP-nucleus scattering in the dark matter direct detection with particular emphasis on the inelastic channel for the 129Xe and 131Xe isotopes. Our generalization incorporates both the elastic and inelastic scattering channels. With multipole expansion of the effective operators, the angular momentum, parity and time-reversal selection rules can effectively determine the allowed transitions. Instead of the nuclear shell model, we use the state-of-the-art relativistic configuration-interaction density functional theory, which is more suitable for heavy nuclei such as xenon isotopes, to calculate the nuclear response functions. For certain interaction operators, the inelastic contribution can be comparable as its elastic counterpart and some can even dominate by up to three orders of magnitude. Additionally, the higher excited nuclear states can have comparable signal rate as the first excited states. We compare our results with the nuclear shell model calculation. The differences would have significant effects for interpreting the dark matter direct detection searches.
Related
- Radiative Corrections to the Direct Detection of Inelastic Scattering of Higgsino-like Neutralino Dark Matter
- Direct detection constraints on EFT operators for inelastic dark matter
- Elastic Scattering of Dirac Dark Matter with Charged Leptons through a Scalar Mediator: Analytical Framework, Numerical Stability, and Direct-Detection Bounds
- Direct observation of the Lindhard continuum using resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
- Solar Neutrino Constraints on Inelastic Dark Matter Scattering in Light of Recent LUX-ZEPLIN Observations
BibTeX
@misc{ge2026dark,
title = {{Dark Matter Inelastic Scattering with Nuclei for Direct Detection}},
author = {Shao-Feng Ge and Oleg Titov and Yakun Wang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.16529},
eprint = {2609.16529},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16529},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Dark Matter Inelastic Scattering with Nuclei for Direct Detection
AU - Shao-Feng Ge
AU - Oleg Titov
AU - Yakun Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.16529
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16529
AB - We investigate the nuclear responses for the WIMP-nucleus scattering in the dark matter direct detection with particular emphasis on the inelastic channel for the ^129Xe and ^131Xe isotopes. Our generalization incorporates both the elastic and inelastic scattering channels. With multipole expansion of the effective operators, the angular momentum, parity and time-reversal selection rules can effectively determine the allowed transitions. Instead of the nuclear shell model, we use the state-of-the-art relativistic configuration-interaction density functional theory, which is more suitable for heavy nuclei such as xenon isotopes, to calculate the nuclear response functions. For certain interaction operators, the inelastic contribution can be comparable as its elastic counterpart and some can even dominate by up to three orders of magnitude. Additionally, the higher excited nuclear states can have comparable signal rate as the first excited states. We compare our results with the nuclear shell model calculation. The differences would have significant effects for interpreting the dark matter direct detection searches.
ER -