Events

Theory Seminar (High Energy/Cosmology)

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Events on Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Detecting Boosted Dark Matter from the Sun with Large Volume Neutrino Detectors
Time: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Place: 5280 Chamberlin Hall
Speaker: Josh Berger
Abstract: We study novel thermal Dark Matter (DM) scenarios where the annihilation of DM captured in the Sun produces boosted stable particles in the dark sector. These stable particles can be the annihilating DM itself, as in the scenario of semi-annihilating DM where DM possesses non-minimal stabilization symmetries, or can be a lighter subdominant DM component, as in the scenario of a multi-component DM sector. We investigate both of these possibilities and present concrete models as proofs of concept, considering DM mass in the wide range of O(1)-O(100) GeV. With a large Lorentz boost, these boosted DM can be detected in large volume terrestrial experiments, such as experiments designed for neutrino physics or proton decay searches, via neutral-current-like interactions with nuclei or electrons. In particular, we propose a search for proton tracks pointing towards the Sun, which is a primary detection channel for boosted DM from the Sun at neutrino experiments. We focus on studying the signals at Cherenkov-radiation-based detectors such as Super-Kamiokande (SK) and its upgrade Hyper-Kamiokande (HK). We find that with spin-dependent scattering as the dominant DM-nucleus interaction at low energies, boosted DM can leave detectable signals at SK or HK, while being consistent with current DM direct detection constraints. The boosted DM signal highlights the distinctive signatures that can arise in non-minimal DM sectors.
Host: Ran Lu
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