Neutrinos from the Sun can discover dark matter-electron scattering

2023/08/23 by Tarak Nath Maity, Maity, Tarak Nath, Akash Kumar Saha +5 · 2 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex) #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2308.12336

openalex publication_date 2023/08/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We probe dark matter-electron scattering using high-energy neutrino observations from the Sun. Dark matter (DM) interacting with electrons can get captured inside the Sun. These captured DM may annihilate to produce different Standard Model (SM) particles. Neutrinos produced from these SM states can be observed in IceCube and DeepCore. Although there is no excess of neutrinos in the solar direction, we find that the current datasets of IceCube and DeepCore set the strongest constraint on the DM-electron scattering cross section in the DM mass range 10 GeV to 10⁵ GeV. Therefore our work implies that future observations of the Sun by neutrino telescopes have the potential to discover the DM-electron interaction.

Cited by

• Illuminating Very Heavy Dark Matter in the Earth with Tau Neutrinos
• Searching for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube Upgrade

Related

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