Prospects for dark matter detection with inelastic transitions of xenon

Understand

Dark matter can scatter and excite a nucleus to a low-lying excitation in a direct detection experiment.

• This signature is distinct from the canonical elastic scattering signal because the inelastic signal also contains the energy deposited from the subsequent prompt de-excitation of the nucleus.
• A measurement of the elastic and inelastic signal will allow a single experiment to distinguish between a spin-independent and spin-dependent interaction.
• For the first time, we characterise the inelastic signal for two-phase xenon detectors in which dark matter inelastically scatters off the Xe-129 or Xe-131 isotope.