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  • Open Access

Simplified spin dependence in dark matter direct detection

Pierce Giffin1,*, Benjamin Lillard2,3,†, Pankaj Munbodh1,‡, and Tien-Tien Yu3,§

  • *Contact author: pgiffin@ucsc.edu
  • †Contact author: blillard@psu.edu
  • ‡Contact author: pmunbodh@ucsc.edu
  • §Contact author: tientien@uoregon.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115018 – Published 9 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6kyn-kqhc

Abstract

The interactions of dark matter with Standard Model particles can be systematically studied in the language of effective field theories. We investigate dark matter interactions with Standard Model particles, including spin-dependent interactions, for direct detection experiments and demonstrate that, although the scattering rate generally depends on multiple types of material response functions, certain linear combinations of these material response functions vanish if the initial and final electronic states share the same Hamiltonian. We also find that several other response functions vanish in parity-symmetric materials, making these systems as simple as isotropic detectors in some respects. Finally, we present the scattering rate for an anisotropic, possibly chiral detector, for generic dark matter-electron spin interactions. These relations reduce the number of independent response functions needed, thereby simplifying the computational complexity for a broad class of dark matter models. Our results provide a complete and efficient toolkit for analyzing electron recoil signals in diverse detector materials.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 115018– Published 9 June, 2026
  • Received 8 December 2025
  • Accepted 30 April 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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