Abstract
We present Self-Destructing Dark Matter (SDDM), a new class of dark matter models which are detectable in large neutrino detectors. In this class of models, a component of dark matter can transition from a long-lived state to a short-lived one by scattering off of a nucleus or an electron in the Earth. The short-lived state then decays to Standard Model particles, generating a dark matter signal with a visible energy of order the dark matter mass rather than just its recoil. This leads to striking signals in large detectors with high energy thresholds. We present a few examples of models which exhibit self destruction, all inspired by bound state dynamics in the Standard Model. The models under consideration exhibit a rich phenomenology, possibly featuring events with one, two, or even three lepton pairs, each with a fixed invariant mass and a fixed energy, as well as non-trivial directional distributions. This motivates dedicated searches for dark matter in large underground detectors such as Super-K, Borexino, SNO+, and DUNE.
Highlights
In this paper, we consider a drastic departure from this picture and discuss the possibility that DM is capable of leaving not just kinetic energy in the detector, but rather all of its mass
We present Self-Destructing Dark Matter (SDDM), a new class of dark matter models which are detectable in large neutrino detectors
This is based on the assumption that the available energy in each dark matter scattering is no larger than its kinetic energy
Summary
The self-destructing scenario is possible thanks to the high density of matter in the Earth, one which is unprecedented from the perspective of an incoming DM particle. The number density of atoms in the Earth is about 1023 larger than that in the galaxy As a result, it is reasonable for the expected rate of transitions to an unstable state to be much larger in one Earth-crossing than it is in the preceding Hubble time. Because the density of targets for self-destruction increases early on, there is an upper bound on the temperature above which all SDDM will be destroyed. Super-K, n is the number density of targets in water and ∆t is the time interval of dark matter passing through the detector. We could repeat the calculation for early universe, where the number density of SM particles is given by n ∼ T 3, and the Hubble time ∆t = H−2 Mplanck/T 2. This implies an upper limit on the temperature for SDDM to be produced in the early universe
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