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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Dark matter-induced electron excitations in silicon and germanium with deep learning

Riccardo Catena* and Einar Urdshals†

  • *Contact author: catena@chalmers.se
  • †Contact author: urdshals@chalmers.se

Phys. Rev. D 111, L011702 – Published 14 January, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.111.L011702

Abstract

We train a deep neural network (DNN) to output rates of dark matter (DM) induced electron excitations in silicon and germanium detectors. Our DNN provides a massive speedup of around 5 orders of magnitude relative to existing methods (i.e., qedark-eft), allowing for extensive parameter scans in the event of an observed DM signal. The network is also lighter and simpler to use than alternative computational frameworks based on a direct calculation of the DM-induced excitation rate.

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