Light Fermionic Dark Matter and its Possible Detection in Neutrino Experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for detecting light fermionic dark matter in neutrino experiments, identifying a weakly constrained operator that could produce observable signals in detectors like Super-Kamiokande.

Contribution

It provides a model-independent analysis of operators enabling dark matter detection in neutrino experiments and identifies a promising operator for future observational efforts.

Findings

Super-Kamiokande can probe new physics scale up to 100 TeV

One operator remains weakly constrained and detectable

Potential for direct detection of light fermionic dark matter

Abstract

We explore the potential for the direct detection of light fermionic dark matter in neutrino detectors. We consider the possible observation of the process $\bar{f} p \to e^+ n$, where $f$ is a dark matter fermion, in a model-independent manner. All operators of dimension six or lower which can contribute to this process are listed, and we place constraints on these operators from decays of $f$ which contain $\gamma$ rays or electrons. One operator is found which is sufficiently weakly constrained that it could give observable interactions in neutrino detectors. We find that Super-Kamiokande can probe the new physics scale for this operator up to $O(100{TeV})$.