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  • Open Access

Refining the sensitivity of new physics searches with ancient minerals

Audrey Fung1,2,*, Thalles Lucas3,2,†, Levente Balogh3,2,‡, Matthew Leybourne4,2,§, and Aaron C. Vincent1,2,5,6,∥

  • *Contact author: audrey.fung@queensu.ca
  • †Contact author: thalles.lucas@queensu.ca
  • ‡Contact author: levente.balogh@queensu.ca
  • §Contact author: m.leybourne@queensu.ca
  • ∥Contact author: aaron.vincent@queensu.ca
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 043040 – Published 28 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/clvr-mhx5

Abstract

Paleodetection has been proposed as a competitive method for detecting dark matter and other new physics interactions, complementing conventional direct-detection experiments. In this work, we utilize trim simulations to improve the modeling of track-length distributions. Our findings suggest that previous studies have overestimated the number of tracks caused by weakly interacting particles, and that the lowest observable dark matter mass should be higher than previously predicted. These differences are mainly attributed to the fact that (a) the recoil energy–track-length relation is not one to one, (b) at low recoil energies, a substantial fraction of recoils do not yield any tracks, and (c) at high energies, electronic stopping becomes dominant, resulting in a track-length barrier at ∼200  nm. In addition to WIMPs, we also modeled tracks from generalized coherent elastic neutrino nucleus scattering (CEνNS) via new light mediators and estimated the projected sensitivity for these interactions.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 043040– Published 28 August, 2025
  • Received 7 May 2025
  • Accepted 30 July 2025
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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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