Search for Dark-Matter-Nucleon Interactions via Migdal Effect with DarkSide-50

Agnes, P;Albuquerque, I F M;Alexander, T;Alton, A K;Ave, M;Back, H O;Batignani, G;Biery, K;Bocci, V;Bonivento, W M;Bottino, B;Bussino, S;Cadeddu, M;Cadoni, M;Calaprice, F;Caminata, A;Campos, M D;Canci, N;Caravati, M;Cargioli, N;Cariello, M;Carlini, M;Cataudella, V;Cavalcante, P;Cavuoti, S;Chashin, S;Chepurnov, A;Cicalò, C;Covone, G;D'Angelo, D;Davini, S;De Candia, A;De Cecco, S;De Filippis, G;De Rosa, G;Derbin, A V;Devoto, A;D'Incecco, M;Dionisi, C;Dordei, F;Downing, M;D'Urso, D;Fairbairn, M;Fiorillo, G;Franco, D;Gabriele, F;Galbiati, C;Ghiano, C;Giganti, C;Giovanetti, G K;Goretti, A M;Grilli di Cortona, G;Grobov, A;Gromov, M;Guan, M;Gulino, M;Hackett, B R;Herner, K;Hessel, T;Hosseini, B;Hubaut, F;Hungerford, E V;Ianni, An;Ippolito, V;Keeter, K;Kendziora, C L;Kimura, M;Kochanek, I;Korablev, D;Korga, G;Kubankin, A;Kuss, M;La Commara, M;Lai, M;Li, X;Lissia, M;Longo, G;Lychagina, O;Machulin, I N;Mapelli, L P;Mari, S M;Maricic, J;Messina, A;Milincic, R;Monroe, J;Morrocchi, M;Mougeot, X;Muratova, V N;Musico, P;Nozdrina, A O;Oleinik, A;Ortica, F;Pagani, L;Pallavicini, M;Pandola, L;Pantic, E;Paoloni, E;Pelczar, K;Pelliccia, N;Piacentini, S;Pocar, A;Poehlmann, D M;Pordes, S;Poudel, S S;Pralavorio, P;Price, D D;Ragusa, F;Razeti, M;Razeto, A;Renshaw, A L;Rescigno, M;Rode, J;Romani, A;Sablone, D;Samoylov, O;Sandford, E;Sands, W;Sanfilippo, S;Savarese, C;Schlitzer, B;Semenov, D A;Shchagin, A;Sheshukov, A;Skorokhvatov, M D;Smirnov, O;Sotnikov, A;Stracka, S;Suvorov, Y;Tartaglia, R;Testera, G;Tonazzo, A;Unzhakov, E V;Vishneva, A;Vogelaar, R B;Wada, M;Wang, H;Wang, Y;Westerdale, S;Wojcik, M M;Xiao, X;Yang, C;Zuzel, G

2023-01-01

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Abstract

Dark matter elastic scattering off nuclei can result in the excitation and ionization of the recoiling atom through the so-called Migdal effect. The energy deposition from the ionization electron adds to the energy deposited by the recoiling nuclear system and allows for the detection of interactions of sub-GeV/c^{2} mass dark matter. We present new constraints for sub-GeV/c^{2} dark matter using the dual-phase liquid argon time projection chamber of the DarkSide-50 experiment with an exposure of (12 306±184)  kg d. The analysis is based on the ionization signal alone and significantly enhances the sensitivity of DarkSide-50, enabling sensitivity to dark matter with masses down to 40  MeV/c^{2}. Furthermore, it sets the most stringent upper limit on the spin independent dark matter nucleon cross section for masses below 3.6  GeV/c^{2}.