Cosmic-ray dark matter confronted by constraints on new light mediators

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bell, Nicole F., Newstead, Jayden L., Shaukat-Ali, Iman
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Bell, Nicole F.
Newstead, Jayden L.
Shaukat-Ali, Iman
author_facet Bell, Nicole F.
Newstead, Jayden L.
Shaukat-Ali, Iman
contents The detectability of light dark matter in direct detection experiments is limited by the small kinetic energy of the recoiling targets. Thus, scenarios where dark matter is boosted to relativistic velocities provide a useful tactic to constrain sub-GeV dark matter particles. Of the possible dark matter boosting mechanisms, cosmic-ray upscattering is an appealing paradigm as it doesn't require any additional assumptions beyond dark matter coupling to nucleons or electrons. However, detectable signals are obtained only with relatively large cross sections which, in turn, can only be realized with large couplings, light mediators or composite dark matter. In this work we consider a general set of light mediators that couple dark matter to hadrons. Using data from Borexino, XENON1T, LZ and Super-K, we show that existing constraints on such mediators preclude appreciable cosmic-ray dark matter upscattering. This finding highlights the limited applicability of cosmic-ray upscattering constraints and suggests they only be used in model-dependent studies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_11003
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Cosmic-ray dark matter confronted by constraints on new light mediators
Bell, Nicole F.
Newstead, Jayden L.
Shaukat-Ali, Iman
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
The detectability of light dark matter in direct detection experiments is limited by the small kinetic energy of the recoiling targets. Thus, scenarios where dark matter is boosted to relativistic velocities provide a useful tactic to constrain sub-GeV dark matter particles. Of the possible dark matter boosting mechanisms, cosmic-ray upscattering is an appealing paradigm as it doesn't require any additional assumptions beyond dark matter coupling to nucleons or electrons. However, detectable signals are obtained only with relatively large cross sections which, in turn, can only be realized with large couplings, light mediators or composite dark matter. In this work we consider a general set of light mediators that couple dark matter to hadrons. Using data from Borexino, XENON1T, LZ and Super-K, we show that existing constraints on such mediators preclude appreciable cosmic-ray dark matter upscattering. This finding highlights the limited applicability of cosmic-ray upscattering constraints and suggests they only be used in model-dependent studies.
title Cosmic-ray dark matter confronted by constraints on new light mediators
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.11003