Dark matter induced atomic ionisation

Develop and test atomic methods for calculating dark matter interactions with atoms. This includes atomic excitation and ionisation caused by the scattering of dark matter particles by atoms, as well as the absorption of dark matter particles by atoms (so-called dark photo-electric effect).

The project will involve aspects of quantum mechanics (elementary atomic theory, scattering theory) and particle astrophysics (application to dark matter direct detection experiments, and interpretation of results in terms of dark matter and particle physics models). It will also involve some basic programming (in c++ and/or python), though no prior knowledge of programming is required.

For some details, see: Physical Review D, 100, 063017 (2019) [http://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07127]