Dark Matter Meets Condensed Matter: A High-Energy Theory Perspective

The field of sub-GeV dark matter detection is just over a decade old, and has already made amazing progress taking ideas on the page to world-leading experimental sensitivity. The peculiar kinematics of galactic dark matter imply that the discovery potential for low-mass dark matter experiments relies crucially on the condensed matter properties of the detector materials. I will give several examples of detectors being developed to operate in the gap between high-energy and low-energy physics, driven by an incredibly fruitful and rich collaboration between particle physicists, condensed matter physicists, materials scientists, chemists, and quantum measurement specialists on both sides of the theory/experiment divide. I will highlight the signals and phenomena where further collaboration is required to fully understand the detector response.