Light WIMPs in the Sun: Constraints from Helioseismology

TL;DR

This study uses helioseismology to constrain properties of light WIMP dark matter particles in the Sun, providing complementary limits to direct detection and collider experiments, especially for masses below 10 GeV.

Contribution

It introduces a method of using helioseismic data to set constraints on WIMP dark matter properties in the 5-50 GeV mass range, focusing on their effects on solar structure.

Findings

WIMPs with mass <10 GeV are ruled out by helioseismic constraints.

WIMPs with mass 30-50 GeV have minimal impact on solar p-modes.

Helioseismology can complement direct detection in probing light WIMPs.

Abstract

We calculate solar models including dark matter (DM) weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs) of mass 5-50 GeV and test these models against helioseismic constraints on sound speed, convection zone depth, convection zone helium abundance, and small separations of low-degree p-modes. Our main conclusion is that both direct detection experiments and particle accelerators may be complemented by using the Sun as a probe for WIMP DM particles in the 5-50 GeV mass range. The DM most sensitive to this probe has suppressed annihilations and a large spin-dependent elastic scattering cross section. For the WIMP cross-section parameters explored here, the lightest WIMP masses <10 GeV are ruled out by constraints on core sound speed and low-degree frequency spacings. For WIMP masses 30-50 GeV, the changes to the solar structure are confined to the inner 4% of the solar radius and so do not significantly affect the solar p-modes. Future helioseismology observations, most notably involving g-modes, and future solar neutrino experiments may be able to constrain the allowable DM parameter space in a mass range that is of current interest for direct detection.