Dark matter pair absorption

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Bauer, Martin, Perez-Soler, Javier, Shergold, Jack D.
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Bauer, Martin
Perez-Soler, Javier
Shergold, Jack D.
author_facet Bauer, Martin
Perez-Soler, Javier
Shergold, Jack D.
contents We present a comprehensive analysis of the sensitivity of atomic transitions to light dark matter pair absorption. Unlike scattering, where only a fraction of the dark matter energy is deposited, pair absorption processes absorb the full mass, and are therefore capable of constraining far lighter dark matter. Spin-flip and fine structure transitions are able to constrain electroweak scale axial-vector couplings for bosonic dark matter with $μ\mathrm{eV}$ to eV masses, whilst principal quantum number transitions are able to set similar constraints on bosonic dark matter with scalar couplings. Unfortunately, pair absorption is largely insensitive to light fermionic DM due its necessarily tiny density at low masses. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of pair absorption to the cosmic neutrino background, and find that spin-flip transitions can set constraints on the overdensity parameter of $η_ν\lesssim 10^9$ for neutrino masses $m_ν\lesssim 1\,\mathrm{meV}$, around a hundred times stronger than existing constraints.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_14287
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dark matter pair absorption
Bauer, Martin
Perez-Soler, Javier
Shergold, Jack D.
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
We present a comprehensive analysis of the sensitivity of atomic transitions to light dark matter pair absorption. Unlike scattering, where only a fraction of the dark matter energy is deposited, pair absorption processes absorb the full mass, and are therefore capable of constraining far lighter dark matter. Spin-flip and fine structure transitions are able to constrain electroweak scale axial-vector couplings for bosonic dark matter with $μ\mathrm{eV}$ to eV masses, whilst principal quantum number transitions are able to set similar constraints on bosonic dark matter with scalar couplings. Unfortunately, pair absorption is largely insensitive to light fermionic DM due its necessarily tiny density at low masses. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of pair absorption to the cosmic neutrino background, and find that spin-flip transitions can set constraints on the overdensity parameter of $η_ν\lesssim 10^9$ for neutrino masses $m_ν\lesssim 1\,\mathrm{meV}$, around a hundred times stronger than existing constraints.
title Dark matter pair absorption
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.14287