SMU Physics Speaker Series: Dr. Rob Calkins (SMU)
Channel: Stephen Sekula
Date: 2022-04-19

Despite the abundance of evidence for dark matter in the universe, direct detector experiments have delivered null results for quite some time now. These experiments typically search for low energy nuclear recoils induced by interactions with dark matter, with low mass sensitivity driven by detector threshold. As traditional parameter space is chipped away at, new ideas in search channels and detector technologies emerge. One new idea that has recently emerged has been to utilize inelastic scattering channels to search for dark matter. These scattering channels predict the emission of photons or electrons in addition to a recoiling nucleus, which can boost the expected deposited energy signal about detection thresholds at the expense of reduced interaction rate. Searches in these channels with a low threshold detector can provide new sensitivity to low masses. In this talk, I will present results from a search using data collected with the SuperCDMS-Soudan experiment that is world leading for dark matter masses below 0.1 GeV/c2.