A new test of the light dark matter hypothesis

TL;DR

This paper proposes using precise measurements of the electron's anomalous magnetic moment to test the light dark matter hypothesis, which is difficult to verify with current high-energy experiments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to test light dark matter models using existing precision measurements of the electron magnetic moment.

Findings

Electron magnetic moment measurements can test light dark matter hypotheses.

Current precision is sufficient to confirm or refute the light dark matter scenario.

Implications for astrophysics if the hypothesis is confirmed.

Abstract

Detection of a surprisingly high flux of positron annihilation radiation from the inner galaxy has motivated the proposal that dark matter is made of weakly interacting light particles (possibly as light as the electron). This scenario is extremely hard to test in current high energy physics experiments. Here, however, we demonstrate that the current value of the electron anomalous magnetic moment already has the required precision to unambiguously test the light dark matter hypothesis. If confirmed, the implications for astrophysics are far-reaching.