Abstract
The next generation of dark matter direct detection experiments will be sensitive to both coherent neutrino-nucleus and neutrino-electron scattering. This will enable them to explore aspects of solar physics, perform the lowest energy measurement of the weak angle sin2 θ W to date, and probe contributions from new theories with light mediators. In this article, we compute the projected nuclear and electron recoil rates expected in several dark matter direct detection experiments due to solar neutrinos, and use these estimates to quantify errors on future measurements of the neutrino fluxes, weak mixing angle and solar observables, as well as to constrain new physics in the neutrino sector. Our analysis shows that the combined rates of solar neutrino events in second generation experiments (SuperCDMS and LZ) can yield a measurement of the pp flux to 2.5% accuracy via electron recoil, and slightly improve the 8B flux determination. Assuming a low-mass argon phase, projected tonne-scale experiments like DARWIN can reduce the uncertainty on both the pp and boron-8 neutrino fluxes to below 1%. Finally, we use current results from LUX, SuperCDMS and CDMSlite to set bounds on new interactions between neutrinos and electrons or nuclei, and show that future direct detection experiments can be used to set complementary constraints on the parameter space associated with light mediators.
Highlights
The recoil spectrum of a 6 GeV dark matter particle would be very difficult to distinguish from the 8B solar neutrino flux, though one may be able to discriminate both signals by exploiting their different contributions to annual modulation [7, 8], or by using a combination of complementary targets [9] and directional detectors [10, 11] or detectors with improved energy resolution [12]
The we review the necessary physics of solar neutrino fluxes and direct detection experiments that are relevant for this study and that go into the production of our results
If only the experimental measurement by Borexino [19] of the pp flux is considered, we find that future direct detection (DD) experiments can measure sin2 θW down to about 20% uncertainty
Summary
The dominant contributions to the neutrino flux in the lowest energy range arise from the various nuclear fusion and decay processes occurring in the solar core, associated with the Sun’s energy production. The primary fusion process in the Sun is p+p → 2H+e+ +νe and leads to the production of neutrinos in a continuum up to Eν 400 keV These are referred to as pp neutrinos and are by far the largest contributors to the solar neutrino flux below the MeV scale. The decay of 8B nuclei produced in the pp and pep chains yields the highest energy neutrinos, within the 1–10 MeV range These are expected to produce nuclear recoils in DD experiments near the ER ∼ keV recoil energy threshold. Note that atmospheric neutrinos and neutrinos from the diffuse supernova background could induce nuclear recoil signatures in DD experiments Since they are produced at higher energies and with much lower rates, they should only be within the reach of future multi-ton experiments.
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