Effect of low mass dark matter particles on the Sun

TL;DR

This study investigates how low-mass dark matter particles could influence the Sun's core temperature and neutrino flux, examining the detectability of these effects and their implications for solar models and dark matter properties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of low-mass dark matter on solar neutrino fluxes and the solar structure, especially considering asymmetric dark matter and self-interacting models.

Findings

Detectable neutrino flux reduction only for asymmetric DM with very small self-annihilation cross section.

Reassessment of DM effects on the solar convective zone shows minimal impact when proper capture rate limits are applied.

Constraints on DM models with specific masses and cross sections based on current solar neutrino data.

Abstract

We study the effect of dark matter (DM) particles in the Sun, focusing in particular on the possible reduction of the solar neutrinos flux due to the energy carried away by DM particles from the innermost regions of the Sun, and to the consequent reduction of the temperature of the solar core. We find that in the very low-mass range between 4 and 10 GeV, recently advocated to explain the findings of the DAMA and CoGent experiments, the effects on neutrino fluxes are detectable only for DM models with very small, or vanishing, self-annihilation cross section, such as the so-called asymmetric DM models, and we study the combination of DM masses and Spin Dependent cross sections which can be excluded with current solar neutrino data. Finally, we revisit the recent claim that DM models with large self-interacting cross sections can lead to a modification of the position of the convective zone, alleviating or solving the solar composition problem. We show that when the `geometric' upper limit on the capture rate is correctly taken into account, the effects of DM are reduced by orders of magnitude, and the position of the convective zone remains unchanged.