Multiphonon excitations from dark matter scattering in crystals

@article{CampbellDeem2019MultiphononEF,
  title={Multiphonon excitations from dark matter scattering in crystals},
  author={Brian Campbell-Deem and Peter Cox and Simon Knapen and Tongyan Lin and Tom Melia},
  journal={Physical Review D},
  year={2019}
}
For direct detection of sub-MeV dark matter, a promising strategy is to search for individual phonon excitations in a crystal. We perform an analytic calculation of the rate for light dark matter (keV $<m_{DM}<$ MeV) to produce two acoustic phonons through scattering in cubic crystals such as GaAs, Ge, Si and diamond. The multiphonon rate is always smaller than the rate to produce a single optical phonon, whenever the latter is kinematically accessible. In Si and diamond there is a dark matter… 
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