Prospects for Light Dark Matter Searches at Large-Volume Neutrino Detectors

Abstract

We propose a new approach to search for light dark matter (DM), with keV-GeV mass, via inelastic nucleus scattering at large-volume neutrino detectors such as Borexino, DUNE, Super-K, Hyper-K, and JUNO. The approach uses inelastic nuclear scattering of cosmic-ray boosted DM, enabling a low background search for DM in these experiments. Large neutrino detectors, with higher thresholds than dark matter detectors, can be used, since the nuclear deexcitation lines are O(10) MeV. Using a hadrophilic dark-gauge-boson-portal model as a benchmark, we show that the nuclear inelastic channels generally provide better sensitivity than the elastic scattering for a large region of light DM parameter space.

arXiv comment8 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (56)

• Dark Matter Search Results from a One Tonne$\times$Year Exposure of XENON1T
• Neutrino Physics with JUNO
• The Waning of the WIMP? A Review of Models, Searches, and Constraints
• First Dark Matter Search Results from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Experiment
• DarkSide-20k: A 20 Tonne Two-Phase LAr TPC for Direct Dark Matter Detection at LNGS
• First results from the CRESST-III low-mass dark matter program
• Direct Detection of WIMP Dark Matter: Concepts and Status
• First Dark Matter Search with Nuclear Recoils from the XENONnT Experiment
• The Borexino detector at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso
• Atmospheric neutrino flux calculation using the NRLMSISE00 atmospheric model
• Science and Technology of BOREXINO: A Real Time Detector for Low Energy Solar Neutrinos SOLAR NEUTRINOS
• Novel direct detection constraints on light dark matter
• A new effective interaction for $0\hslash \omega$ shell model calculations in the sdpf valence space
• (In)direct Detection of Boosted Dark Matter
• Light Dark Matter at Neutrino Experiments
• Semi-annihilation of Dark Matter
• New constraints on light vectors coupled to anomalous currents
• On the Detectability of Light Dark Matter with Superfluid Helium
• Grand Unified Neutrino Spectrum at Earth: Sources and Spectral Components
• Directly detecting sub-GeV dark matter with electrons from nuclear scattering
• Model-Independent Indirect Detection Constraints on Hidden Sector Dark Matter
• Light Dark Matter in Superfluid Helium: Detection with Multi-excitation Production
• Light Dark Matter Search with a High-Resolution Athermal Phonon Detector Operated Above Ground
• Reverse Direct Detection: Cosmic Ray Scattering With Light Dark Matter
• Geophysical and geochemical constraints on geoneutrino fluxes from Earth's mantle
• Assisted freeze-out
• Supernova Inelastic Neutrino-Nucleus Cross Sections from High-Resolution Electron Scattering Experiments and Shell-Model Calculations
• Neutrinophilic Non-Standard Interactions
• Factorization in large-scale many-body calculations
• Bounds on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter in Simplified Models and its Corresponding Neutrino-Floor
• Light new physics in coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments
• Boosted dark matter signals uplifted with self-interaction
• (Not as) Big as a Barn: Upper Bounds on Dark Matter-Nucleus Cross Sections
• Light Dark Matter from Inelastic Cosmic Ray Collisions
• A Search for the Cosmic Ray Boosted Sub-GeV Dark Matter at the PandaX-II Experiment
• Dark Matter "Collider" from Inelastic Boosted Dark Matter
• Leptonic New Force and Cosmic-ray Boosted Dark Matter for the XENON1T Excess
• Dark matter signals from timing spectra at neutrino experiments
• Cosmic-ray upscattered inelastic dark matter
• Implications of BBN Bounds for Cosmic Ray Upscattered Dark Matter
• Neutrino experiments probe hadrophilic light dark matter
• Dark Matter Detection Using Helium Evaporation and Field Ionization
• Constraints on sub-GeV dark matter boosted by cosmic rays from the CDEX-10 experiment at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory
• A sub-GeV dark matter model
• New limits on heavy sterile neutrino mixing in ${}^8\mathrm{B}$-decay obtained with the Borexino detector
• Search for Cosmic-ray Boosted Sub-GeV Dark Matter using Recoil Protons at Super-Kamiokande
• Prospects for Detecting Boosted Dark Matter in DUNE through Hadronic Interactions
• A Search for Low-mass Dark Matter via Bremsstrahlung Radiation and the Migdal Effect in SuperCDMS
• Cosmic-ray dark matter confronted by constraints on new light mediators
• Geoneutrinos in Large Direct Detection Experiments
• Constraints on cosmic-ray boosted dark matter with realistic cross section
• Large Energy Singles at JUNO from Atmospheric Neutrinos and Dark Matter
• Inelastic nuclear scattering from neutrinos and dark matter
• Neutral-current neutrino cross section and expected supernova signals for ${}^{40}$Ar from a three-fold increase in the magnetic dipole strength
• Probing the dark sector with nuclear transition photons
• Distinctive nuclear signatures of low-energy atmospheric neutrinos

Cited by in corpus (8)

• New constraints on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter from the LUX-ZEPLIN experiment
• Prospects of detecting cosmic ray up-scattered dark matter with DUNE
• On the impact of heavy meson production spectra on searches for heavy neutral leptons
• Sub-GeV Dark Matter Direct Detection with Neutrino Observatories
• Testable Flavored TeV-scale Resonant Leptogenesis with MeV-GeV Dark Matter in a Neutrinophilic 2HDM
• Dark Matter Internal Pair Production -- A Novel Direct Detection Mechanism
• Nuclear and electron scattering by neutrinos and dark matter in condensed systems
• Monophotons from Scalar Portal Dark Matter at Neutrino Experiments