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The non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter-electron interactions

  • Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
  • Open access
  • Published: 20 March 2025
  • Volume 2025, article number 165, (2025)
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Journal of High Energy Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript
The non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter-electron interactions
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  • Gordan Krnjaic  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7420-95771,2,3,
  • Duncan Rocha  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8263-79821,3,4 &
  • Tanner Trickle  ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1371-49881 

  • 124 Accesses

  • 1 Altmetric

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A preprint version of the article is available at arXiv.

Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Fermilab which is operated by the Fermi Research Alliance, LLC under Contract DE-AC02-07CH11359 with the U.S. Department of Energy. Part of this work was completed at the Aspen Center for Physics, which is supported by National Science Foundation grant PHY-2210452. This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program. The SCGSR program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the DOE under contract number DE-SC0014664.

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  1. Theoretical Physics Division, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Kirk and Pine St, Batavia, IL, 60510, USA

    Gordan Krnjaic, Duncan Rocha & Tanner Trickle

  2. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, South Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Gordan Krnjaic

  3. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, South Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Gordan Krnjaic & Duncan Rocha

  4. Enrico Fermi Institute, Physics Department, University of Chicago, South Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL, 60637, USA

    Duncan Rocha

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Krnjaic, G., Rocha, D. & Trickle, T. The non-relativistic effective field theory of dark matter-electron interactions. J. High Energ. Phys. 2025, 165 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2025)165

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  • Received: 08 October 2024

  • Revised: 12 February 2025

  • Accepted: 19 February 2025

  • Published: 20 March 2025

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2025)165

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Keywords

  • Effective Field Theories
  • New Light Particles
  • Specific BSM Phenomenology
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