Ab initio predictions for dark matter direct detection
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Physics and Astronomy, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Bruneault, Mathieu
issued: 2023-06-26T17:11:14Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Ab initio nuclear physics considers the problem of solving the many-body Schrödinger equation for protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Of the problems that arise in trying to solve this problem, the sheer size of the Hamiltonians that need to be diagonalized has been particularly limiting in trying to derive nuclear properties from the ground up. With recent advances in computational power, and by using the in-medium similarity renormalization group, a novel ab initio approach, computations of ab initio nuclear properties are now within reach. A problem of particular interest is the scattering of nuclei by weakly interacting massive particles. As one of the prime candidates for the origin of dark matter, weakly interacting massive particles have been the subjects of many direct detection experiments. Such experiments look for nuclear recoil events caused by the non-relativistic scattering of dark matter particles off nuclei, and require careful nuclear calculations of observables such as recoil rates. In this dissertation, we present the results of ab initio calculations in the form of nuclear response functions and observables for dark matter-nucleus scattering in 22 experimentally relevant nuclei. This analysis uses the Chiral effective field theory framework to derive nuclear interactions, and the non-relativistic effective field theory framework to derive observables from a general dark matter-nucleus interaction. This approach, coupled with the in-medium similarity renormalization group, allows for ab initio calculations in quite heavy nuclei, in particular in this work we consider isotopes of Xenon, among other elements. We find that while individual nuclear responses can vary quite a lot from phenomenological calculations, overall observables remain mostly unchanged. One improvement we report on is a quantification of theoretical uncertainty, which may not be obtained from phenomenological calculations.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85150
note: Ab Initio Predictions for Dark MatterDirect DetectionbyMathieu BruneaultB.Sc., McGill University, 2020A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMASTER OF SCIENCEinThe Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies(Physics)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)June 2023© Mathieu Bruneault, 2023The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled:Ab Initio Predictions for Dark Matter Direct Detectionsubmitted by Mathieu Bruneault in partial fulfilment of the requirements forthe degree of Master of Sciencein PhysicsExamining Committee:Jens Dilling, Adjunct Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UBCSupervisor Jason D. Holt, Scientist, Theory Department, TRIUMFSupervisory Committee Member iiAbstractAb initio nuclear physics considers the problem of solving the many-bodySchro¨dinger equation for protons and neutrons in a nucleus. Of the problemsthat arise in trying to solve this problem, the sheer size of the Hamiltoni-ans that need to be diagonalized has been particularly limiting in tryingto derive nuclear properties from the ground up. With recent advances incomputational power, and by using the in-medium similarity renormaliza-tion group, a novel ab initio approach, computations of ab initio nuclearproperties are now within reach.A problem of particular interest is the scattering of nuclei by weaklyinteracting massive particles. As one of the prime candidates for the origin ofdark matter, weakly interacting massive particles have been the subjects ofmany direct detection experiments. Such experiments look for nuclear recoilevents caused by the non-relativistic scattering of dark matter particles offnuclei, and require careful nuclear calculations of observables such as recoilrates.In this thesis, we present the results of ab initio calculations in the formof nuclear response functions and observables for dark matter-…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0433751
language: eng
degree discipline: Physics
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Dilling, Jens
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85150