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arXiv · 1507.02681

MeV-Scale Dark Matter Deep Underground

Eder Izaguirre·Gordan Krnjaic·Maxim Pospelov
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Abstract

We demonstrate that current and planned underground neutrino experiments could offer a powerful probe of few-MeV dark matter when combined with a nearby high-intensity low-to-medium energy electron accelerator. This experimental setup, an underground beam-dump experiment, is capable of decisively testing the thermal freeze-out mechanism for several natural dark matter scenarios in this mass range. We present the sensitivity reach in terms of the mass-coupling parameter space of existing and planned detectors, such as Super-K, SNO+, and JUNO, in conjunction with a hypothetical 100 MeV energy accelerator. This setup can also greatly extend the sensitivity of direct searches for new light weakly-coupled force-carriers independently of their connection to dark matter.

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Eder Izaguirre, Gordan Krnjaic, Maxim Pospelov. 2015-07-09. MeV-Scale Dark Matter Deep Underground. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.92.095014

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