Thermalization time scales for WIMP capture by the Sun in effective theories

Abstract

I study the process of dark matter capture by the Sun, under the assumption of a Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), in the framework of non-relativistic effective field theory. Hypothetically, WIMPs from the galactic halo can scatter against atomic nuclei in the solar interior, settle to thermal equilibrium with the solar core and annihilate to produce an observable flux of neutrinos. In particular, I examine the thermalization process using Monte-Carlo integration of WIMP trajectories. I consider WIMPs in a mass range of 10--1000 GeV and WIMP-nucleon interaction operators with different dependence on spin and transferred momentum. I find that the density profiles of captured WIMPs are in accordance with a thermal profile described by the Sun's gravitational potential and core temperature. Depending on the operator that governs the interaction, the majority of the thermalization time is spent in either the solar interior or exterior. If normalizing the WIMP-nuclei interaction strength to a specific capture rate, I find that the thermalization time differs at most by 3 orders of magnitude between operators. In most cases of interest, the thermalization time is many orders of magnitude shorter than the age of the solar system.

18 pages, 4 figures

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• Constraints on Spin-Dependent Dark Matter Scattering with Long-Lived Mediators from TeV Observations of the Sun with HAWC
• Search for GeV-scale Dark Matter Annihilation in the Sun with IceCube DeepCore
• Evaporation and scattering of momentum- and velocity-dependent dark matter in the Sun
• First HAWC Observations of the Sun Constrain Steady TeV Gamma-Ray Emission
• The distribution of inelastic dark matter in the Sun
• New constraints on inelastic dark matter from IceCube
• A Solar System Test of Self-Interacting Dark Matter
• Effect of polarisation and choice of event generator on spectra from dark matter annihilations
• The leptophilic dark matter in the Sun: the minimum testable mass
• Neutrinos from the Sun can discover dark matter-electron scattering
• Non-standard interactions and neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun
• Assessing the sensitivity of PINGU to effective dark matter-nucleon interactions
• Super-Kamiokande Strongly Constrains Leptophilic Dark Matter Capture in the Sun
• Impact of Evaporation Barriers on Solar-Captured Dark Matter Distribution and Evaporation Mass
• Constraints on dark matter scattering with long lived mediators from observations of the Sun with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Searching for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube Upgrade