New Dark Matter Search Strategies at DUNE

Rott, C.; In, Seongjin; Kumar, Jason; Yaylali, David

doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1342/1/012004

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The detectable neutrino spectrum has two components: a spike at ∼236 MeV from kaon decays-atrest, and a broad-spectrum shoulder from prompt decays of mesons. DUNE is a good candidate to study the spike neutrinos, and has been widely discussed in the literature [25,26,28,74], whereas the sensitivity to shoulder neutrinos is only discussed for electron neutrinos [29]. We evaluate, for the first time, the sensitivity of DUNE from contained GeV-scale tracks originating from the shoulder ν µ and νµ .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutrino constraints on inelastic dark matter captured in the Sun

Chauhan,

Reno,

Rott

et al. 2024

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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The flux of neutrinos from annihilation of gravitationally captured dark matter in the Sun has significant constraints from direct-detection experiments. However, these constraints are relaxed for inelastic dark matter as inelastic dark matter interactions generate less energetic nuclear recoils compared to elastic dark matter interactions. In this paper, we explore the possibility for large volume underground neutrino experiments to detect the neutrino flux from captured inelastic dark matter in the Sun. The neutrino spectrum has two components: a mono-energetic “spike” from pion and kaon decays at rest and a broad-spectrum “shoulder” from prompt primary meson decays. We focus on detecting the shoulder neutrinos from annihilation of hadrophilic inelastic dark matter with masses in the range 4–100 GeV and the mass splittings in up to 300 keV. We determine the event selection criterion for DUNE to identify GeV-scale muon neutrinos and anti-neutrinos originating from hadrophilic dark matter annihilation in the Sun, and forecast the sensitivity from contained events. We also map the current bounds from Super-Kamiokande and IceCube on elastic dark matter, as well as the projected limits from Hyper-Kamiokande, to the parameter space of inelastic dark matter. We find that there is a region of parameter space that these neutrino experiments are more sensitive to than the direct-detection experiments. For dark matter annihilation to heavy-quarks, the projected sensitivity of DUNE is weaker than current (future) Super (Hyper) Kamiokande experiments. However, for the light-quark channel, only the spike is observable and DUNE will be the most sensitive experiment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutrino constraints on inelastic dark matter captured in the Sun

Chauhan,

Reno,

Rott

et al. 2024

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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“…Recent work has focused on developing new techniques for utilizing the excellent particle identification and energy and angular resolution of DUNE to identify the energy and direction of the incoming 236 MeV neutrino [10]. The identification of a flux of 236 MeV neutrinos arriving from the Sun would be an extraordinary signal of new physics, providing a new handle on dark matter interactions which could be a unique probe of non-standard dark matter models [11]. This work further develops techniques for measuring the monoenergetic neutrinos arising from KDAR in the Sun, with a focus on increasing the signal-to-background ratio.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE

Abud

Abi

Acciarri

et al. 2021

J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys.

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The observation of 236 MeV muon neutrinos from kaon-decay-at-rest (KDAR) originating in the core of the Sun would provide a unique signature of dark matter annihilation. Since excellent angle and energy reconstruction are necessary to detect this monoenergetic, directional neutrino flux, DUNE with its vast volume and reconstruction capabilities, is a promising candidate for a KDAR neutrino search. In this work, we evaluate the proposed KDAR neutrino search strategies by realistically modeling both neutrino-nucleus interactions and the response of DUNE. We find that, although reconstruction of the neutrino energy and direction is difficult with current techniques in the relevant energy range, the superb energy resolution, angular resolution, and particle identification offered by DUNE can still permit great signal/background discrimination. Moreover, there are non-standard scenarios in which searches at DUNE for KDAR in the Sun can probe dark matter interactions.

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Modeling quasielastic interactions of monoenergetic kaon decay-at-rest neutrinos

et al. 2021

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Monoenergetic muon neutrinos at 236 MeV are readily produced in intense medium-energy proton facilities ( 2-3 GeV) when a positive kaon decays at rest (KDAR; K + → µ + νµ). These neutrinos provide a unique opportunity to both study the neutrino interaction and probe the nucleus with a monoenergetic weak-interaction-only tool. We present cross section calculations for quasielastic scattering of these 236 MeV neutrinos off 12 C and 40 Ar, paying special attention to low-energy aspects of the scattering process. Our model takes the description of the nucleus in a mean-field (MF) approach as the starting point, where we solve Hartree-Fock (HF) equations using a Skyrme type nucleon-nucleon interaction. Thereby, we introduce long-range nuclear correlations by means of a continuum random phase approximation (CRPA) framework where we solve the CRPA equations using a Green's function method. The model successfully describes (e, e ) data on 12 C and 40 Ca in the kinematic region that overlaps with the KDAR νµ phase space. In addition to these results, we present future prospects for precision KDAR cross section measurements and applications of our calculations in current and future experiments that will utilize these neutrinos.

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New Dark Matter Search Strategies at DUNE

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Neutrino constraints on inelastic dark matter captured in the Sun

Neutrino constraints on inelastic dark matter captured in the Sun

Searching for solar KDAR with DUNE

Modeling quasielastic interactions of monoenergetic kaon decay-at-rest neutrinos

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