Abstract
The scattering of light dark matter off thermal electrons inside the Sun produces a ``fast'' subcomponent of the dark matter flux that may be detectable in underground experiments. We update and extend previous work by analyzing the signatures of dark matter candidates which scatter via light mediators. Using numerical simulations of the dark matter-electron interaction in the solar interior, we determine the energy spectrum of the reflected flux, and calculate the expected rates for direct detection experiments. We find that large Xenon-based experiments (such as XENON1T) provide the strongest direct limits for dark matter masses below a few MeV, reaching a sensitivity to the effective dark matter charge of $\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}e$.
Highlights
The evidence for dark matter (DM), through its gravitational signatures on multiple astrophysical and cosmological scales, continues to stand as one of the primary motivations for physics beyond the Standard Model
As the technology of direct detection experiments improves, and experimental sensitivity to dark matter in the galactic halo is pushed down toward the threshold for elastic scattering of neutrino background fluxes, there is increasing attention focused on a variety of DM models that go beyond the traditional WIMP paradigm
Coupled to the broadening scope of DM searches is the identification of “blind spots” for direct detection, and associated experimental efforts to address them. One such problematic topic in direct detection has been the realm of light WIMPs, where the momentum transfer in scattering often falls below the detection threshold for the majority of DM experiments searching for nuclear recoil
Summary
The evidence for dark matter (DM), through its gravitational signatures on multiple astrophysical and cosmological scales, continues to stand as one of the primary motivations for physics beyond the Standard Model. Light dark matter may exist well below the low mass end of the traditional thermal relic WIMP window [1], due to the possibility of light mediators playing a role in freeze-out in the early universe [2,3,4] In such models, scattering of DM on electrons may provide better prospects for detection. An alternative pathway for generating extra sensitivity is to account for subcomponents of DM in full halo distribution that are considerably more energetic than the primary galactic flux, and are visible to conventional underground detectors that have higher thresholds, and large volumes and exposures [12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23].
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