Sun Heated MeV-scale Dark Matter and the XENON1T Electron Recoil Excess

Abstract

The XENON1T collaboration reported an excess of the low-energy electron recoil events between 1 and 7 keV. We explore the possibility to explain such an anomaly by the MeV-scale dark matter (DM) heated by the interior of the Sun due to the same DM-electron interaction as in the detector. The kinetic energies of heated DM particles can reach a few keV, and can potentially account for the excess signals detected by XENON1T. We study different form factors of the DM-electron interactions, $F(q)\propto q^i$ with $i=0,1,2$ and $q$ being the momentum exchange, and find that for all these cases the inclusion of the Sun-heated DM component improves the fit to the XENON1T data. The inferred DM-electron scattering cross section (at $q=\alpha m_e$ where $\alpha$ is the fine structure constant and $m_e$ is electron mass) is from $\sim 10^{-38}$~cm${}^2$ (for $i=0$) to $\sim 10^{-42}$~cm${}^2$ (for $i=2$). We also derive constraints on the DM-electron cross sections for different form factors, which are stronger than previous results with similar assumptions. We emphasize that the Sun-heated DM scenario relies on the minimum assumption on DM models, which serves as a general explanation of the XENON1T anomaly via DM-electron interaction. The spectrum of the Sun-heated DM is typically soft comparing to other boosted DM, so the small recoil events are expected to be abundant in this scenario. More sensitive direct detection experiments with lower thresholds can possibly distinguish this scenario with other boosted DM models or solar axion models.

arXiv comment11 pages, 2 figures; published in JHEP

References in corpus (42)

• Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter: Concepts and Status
• Revisiting the bound on axion-photon coupling from Globular Clusters
• First Direct Detection Limits on sub-GeV Dark Matter from XENON10
• SENSEI: Direct-Detection Results on sub-GeV Dark Matter from a New Skipper-CCD
• Light Dark Matter: Models and Constraints
• A new Generation of Standard Solar Models
• LEP Shines Light on Dark Matter
• Novel direct detection constraints on light dark matter
• Current status of direct dark matter detection experiments
• Neutrino and axion bounds from the globular cluster M5 (NGC 5904)
• A review of the discovery reach of directional Dark Matter detection
• Light Dark Matter at Neutrino Experiments
• How Magnetic is the Dirac Neutrino?
• Stellar Recipes for Axion Hunters
• Solar axion flux from the axion-electron coupling
• Directly Detecting MeV-scale Dark Matter via Solar Reflection
• A proposal to search for a monochromatic component of solar axions using ${}^{57}$Fe
• Strong New Limits on Light Dark Matter from Neutrino Experiments
• Reverse Direct Detection: Cosmic Ray Scattering With Light Dark Matter
• Model Independent Bounds on Magnetic Moments of Majorana Neutrinos
• Atomic responses to general dark matter-electron interactions
• Co-SIMP Miracle
• Boosted Dark Matter Interpretation of the XENON1T Excess
• XENON1T excess from anomaly-free ALP dark matter and its implications for stellar cooling anomaly
• Exploring New Physics with O(keV) Electron Recoils in Direct Detection Experiments
• Dark Matter and the XENON1T electron recoil excess
• Re-examining the Solar Axion Explanation for the XENON1T Excess
• Dark matter scattering on electrons: Accurate calculations of atomic excitations and implications for the DAMA signal
• Atmospheric Dark Matter and Xenon1T Excess
• Highly-boosted dark matter and cutoff for cosmic-ray neutrino through neutrino portal
• Light new physics in XENON1T
• Constraining the neutrino magnetic dipole moment from white dwarf pulsations
• Diurnal Effect of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Boosted by Cosmic Rays
• Supernova signals of light dark matter
• Late Time Neutrino Masses, the LSND Experiment and the Cosmic Microwave Background
• Hidden Photon Dark Matter in the Light of XENON1T and Stellar Cooling
• Electron-interacting dark matter: Implications from DAMA/LIBRA-phase2 and prospects for liquid xenon detectors and NaI detectors
• Fuzzy Dark Matter from Infrared Confining Dynamics
• On-shell mediator dark matter models and the Xenon1T anomaly
• Cosmology and time dependent parameters induced by misaligned light scalar
• Constraints on electron-scattering interpretation of XENON1T excess
• Cosmology and prospects for sub-MeV dark matter in electron recoil experiments

Cited by in corpus (20)

• A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• Direct detection of dark energy: the XENON1T excess and future prospects
• Solar Reflection of Dark Matter
• Solar reflection of light dark matter with heavy mediators
• Global fits of axion-like particles to XENON1T and astrophysical data
• Cosmic-ray dark matter confronted by constraints on new light mediators
• An Active-to-Sterile Neutrino Transition Dipole Moment and the XENON1T Excess
• Probing the relaxed relaxion and Higgs-portal with S1 & S2
• The ups and downs of inelastic dark matter: Electron recoils from terrestrial upscattering
• Collider Constraints on a Dark Matter Interpretation of the XENON1T Excess
• Constraining ultralight bosonic dark matter with Keck observations of S2's orbit and kinematics
• Geometric corrections to cosmological entanglement
• Revisiting the Fermionic Dark Matter Absorption on Electron Target
• Constraints on dark matter annihilation from the Event Horizon Telescope Observations of M87${}^{\star }$
• In-medium screening effects for the Galactic halo and solar-reflected dark matter detection in semiconductor targets
• Probing sub-GeV leptophilic dark matter at Belle II and NA64
• Solar Active-Sterile Neutrino Conversion with Atomic Effects at Dark Matter Direct Detection Experiments
• Explorations of pseudo-Dirac dark matter having keV splittings and interacting via transition electric and magnetic dipole moments
• Attenuation of Cosmic Ray Electron Boosted Dark Matter
• Dark Fluxes from Accreting Black Holes and Direct Detections