2025/03/10 by Krishna, Dhashin, Sherpa, Rinchen, Saha, Akash Kumar +3
#FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2503.07713
Particle dark matter scattering on electrons in the Sun may gravitationally capture and self-annihilate inside it to neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, or other final states that in turn decay to them. Using up-to-date measurements by Super-Kamiokande of the fluxes of atmospheric electron-type and muon-type neutrinos, we set the most stringent limits on the electron scattering cross sections of dark matter down to about 10-40-10-39 cm2 over a mass range of 4-200 GeV. These outdo direct searches for dark matter-electron scattering and previously set limits at IceCube. We also derive corresponding reaches at Hyper-K, and show that atmospheric neutrino observations restricted to the direction of the Sun can improve sensitivities.