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  • Open Access

Spin-dependent dark matter scattering in quasi-two-dimensional magnets

Giacomo Marocco1,* and John Wheater2,†

  • *Contact author: gmarocco@lbl.gov
  • †Contact author: john.wheater@physics.ox.ac.uk
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 035030 – Published 20 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/w6kp-wb1c

Abstract

We study the prospects of detecting dark matter coupled to the spin of the electron, such that it may scatter and excite magnons—collective excitations of electronic spins. We show that materials exhibiting long-range magnetic order where the spins are coupled only along a plane may act as directional dark matter detectors. These quasi-two-dimensional materials possess anisotropic dispersion relations and structure functions which induce a sidereal modulation in the excitation rate. We calculate the expected signal rate for some candidate (anti)ferromagnets, demonstrating a possible route to the direct detection of spin-dependent dark matter in the keV to MeV mass range.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 035030– Published 20 August, 2025
  • Received 21 May 2025
  • Accepted 17 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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