Speaker
Description
Liquid xenon is an important target material for the direct detection of light dark matter (DM) via electron recoils. Consequently, accurate modeling of the DM-electron interaction in this medium is crucial. In particular, a proper description of the electron final states plays a key role in modeling the electronic response of the detector. We present our ongoing work following a novel approach in which the final states are described as linear combinations of positive-energy eigenstates of the Schrödinger equation, combined with a DFT modeling of the liquid xenon phase. These states replace the single positive-energy eigenstate approximation commonly adopted when liquid xenon targets are treated as collections of non-interacting atoms. Our approach therefore represents a step towards a more realistic description of liquid xenon as an interacting many-body system.