Abstract
We show that a positive signal in a dark matter (DM) direct detection experiment can be used to place a lower bound on the DM capture rate in the Sun, independent of the DM halo. For a given particle physics model and DM mass we obtain a lower bound on the capture rate independent of the local DM density, velocity distribution, galactic escape velocity, as well as the scattering cross section. We illustrate this lower bound on the capture rate by assuming that upcoming direct detection experiments will soon obtain a significant signal. When comparing the lower bound on the capture rate with limits on the high-energy neutrino flux from the Sun from neutrino telescopes, we can place upper limits on the branching fraction of DM annihilation channels leading to neutrinos. With current data from IceCube and Super-Kamiokande non-trivial limits can be obtained for spin-dependent interactions and direct annihilations into neutrinos. In some cases also annihilations into ττ or b b start getting constrained. For spin-independent interactions current constraints are weak, but they may become interesting for data from future neutrino telescopes.
Highlights
For a given particle physics model and dark matter (DM) mass we obtain a lower bound on the capture rate independent of the local DM density, velocity distribution, galactic escape velocity, as well as the scattering cross section
When comparing the lower bound on the capture rate with limits on the highenergy neutrino flux from the Sun from neutrino telescopes, we can place upper limits on the branching fraction of DM annihilation channels leading to neutrinos
In appendix A, we discuss how to use an annual modulation signal in a DD experiment to provide the lower bound on the capture rate, and apply our results to the DAMA signal
Summary
We review the relevant expressions for DD of dark matter [28]. We focus on elastic scattering of DM particles χ with mass mχ off a nucleus with mass number A and mass mA, depositing the nuclear recoil energy ER. In the following we will concentrate on spin-independent (SI) and spindependent (SD) scattering from a contact interaction This implies that the differential scattering cross section dσA(v)/dER scales as 1/v2. For fixed DM mass, one can translate the event rate in ER space into vm space, and η(vm, t) has to be the same for any experiment This is the basis of the halo-independent methods developed in refs. In this case, the angular averaged distribution f(v) times the constant C can be extracted from the data (modulo experimental resolutions and uncertainties).
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