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arXiv · 2609.06423

A Mean-Field Approach to the Dielectric Response of Bulk Superconductors for Light Dark Matter Direct Detection

Chengyao Gan·Hui Li·Wenjing Li·Zheng-Liang Liang·Lin Zhang·Fawei Zheng
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Abstract

The dielectric function is central to describing many-body screening effects in dark matter (DM) direct detection with condensed matter targets. Current superconducting detector analyses employ the free-electron Lindhard dielectric function to model in-medium effects, an approximation whose validity in the superconducting state remains untested. We derive the electronic dielectric function for bulk superconductors within the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) framework, incorporating the full Bogoliubov quasiparticle coherence factors in the random-phase approximation. A systematic comparison with the Lindhard function for aluminum and tungsten silicide (WSi) reveals good agreement for energy depositions $\omega\gtrsim5\Delta$, establishing the Lindhard function as a robust approximation for superconducting DM detectors operating in this regime.

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Chengyao Gan, Hui Li, Wenjing Li, Zheng-Liang Liang, Lin Zhang, Fawei Zheng. 2026-09-06. A Mean-Field Approach to the Dielectric Response of Bulk Superconductors for Light Dark Matter Direct Detection. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.06423

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