Search for light dark matter from atmosphere in PandaX-4T

Abstract

We report a search for light dark matter produced through the cascading decay of $\hat{I}\cdot$ mesons, which are created as a result of inelastic collisions between cosmic rays and Earth's atmosphere. We introduce a new and general framework, publicly accessible, designed to address boosted dark matter specifically, with which a full and dedicated simulation including both elastic and quasi-elastic processes of Earth attenuation effect on the dark matter particles arriving at the detector is performed. In the PandaX-4T commissioning data of 0.63 tonne$\cdot$year exposure, no significant excess over background is observed. The first constraints on the interaction between light dark matter generated in the atmosphere and nucleus through a light scalar mediator are obtained. The lowest excluded cross-section is set at $5.9\times 10^{-37}\mathrm{c}{\mathrm{m}}^2$ for dark matter mass of $0.1$ MeV$/c^2$ and mediator mass of 300 MeV$/c^2$. The lowest upper limit of $\hat{I}\cdot$ to dark matter decay branching ratio is $1.6\times 10^{-7}$.

6 pages, 3 figures