Primordial black holes as cosmic accelerators of light dark matter: Novel direct detection constraints

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Jeesun, Sk, Majumdar, Anirban, Srivastava, Rahul
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Jeesun, Sk
Majumdar, Anirban
Srivastava, Rahul
author_facet Jeesun, Sk
Majumdar, Anirban
Srivastava, Rahul
contents Current multi-tonne-scale dark matter (DM) detectors are largely incapable of detecting light dark matter from the Galactic halo due to the energy threshold limitations of their recoil measurements. However, primordial black holes (PBHs) can evaporate via Hawking radiation to particles whose energies are set by the black hole temperature. Consequently, weakly interacting light dark matter (or dark radiation) particles produced in this manner can reach the Earth with sufficient flux and kinetic energy above the experimental thresholds. This opens up a novel avenue to probe the light dark sector in terrestrial experiments. In this work, we explore this possibility by considering fermionic DM produced through PBH evaporation and investigating its electron recoil signatures in direct detection experiments. We analyze both energy independent (constant) and energy dependent (scalar and vector mediated) DM-electron interactions, highlighting the strong dependence of the recoil spectra on the underlying Lorentz structure of the interaction. In addition, we also account for the attenuation effects due to the loss of kinetic energy while DM traverses through Earth's crust, which can significantly modify the incoming DM flux. Incorporating these effects carefully, we place constraints on light DM using the electron recoil data from XENONnT, LZ, and PandaX-4T. Finally, we also discuss the detection prospects of such dark matter in current and future generation neutrino detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_04858
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Primordial black holes as cosmic accelerators of light dark matter: Novel direct detection constraints
Jeesun, Sk
Majumdar, Anirban
Srivastava, Rahul
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Experiment
Current multi-tonne-scale dark matter (DM) detectors are largely incapable of detecting light dark matter from the Galactic halo due to the energy threshold limitations of their recoil measurements. However, primordial black holes (PBHs) can evaporate via Hawking radiation to particles whose energies are set by the black hole temperature. Consequently, weakly interacting light dark matter (or dark radiation) particles produced in this manner can reach the Earth with sufficient flux and kinetic energy above the experimental thresholds. This opens up a novel avenue to probe the light dark sector in terrestrial experiments. In this work, we explore this possibility by considering fermionic DM produced through PBH evaporation and investigating its electron recoil signatures in direct detection experiments. We analyze both energy independent (constant) and energy dependent (scalar and vector mediated) DM-electron interactions, highlighting the strong dependence of the recoil spectra on the underlying Lorentz structure of the interaction. In addition, we also account for the attenuation effects due to the loss of kinetic energy while DM traverses through Earth's crust, which can significantly modify the incoming DM flux. Incorporating these effects carefully, we place constraints on light DM using the electron recoil data from XENONnT, LZ, and PandaX-4T. Finally, we also discuss the detection prospects of such dark matter in current and future generation neutrino detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande and Hyper-Kamiokande.
title Primordial black holes as cosmic accelerators of light dark matter: Novel direct detection constraints
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04858