# Bounds on Cosmic Ray-Boosted Dark Matter in Simplified Models and its Corresponding Neutrino-Floor

## TL;DR

This paper analyzes how cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter interacts with detectors, revealing that energy-dependent cross sections significantly strengthen detection bounds and defining a neutrino-floor that limits future searches.

## Contribution

It introduces the importance of energy dependence in scattering cross sections for cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter, providing more accurate bounds than previous constant cross section assumptions.

## Key findings

- Energy dependence greatly enhances detection bounds at low DM mass.
- Calculated the neutrino-floor for cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter detection.
- Demonstrated the critical role of energy dependence in interpreting experimental data.

## Abstract

We study direct detection bounds on cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter in simplified models including light mediators. We find that the energy dependence in the scattering cross section is significant, and produces stronger bounds than previously found (which assumed constant cross sections) by many orders of magnitude at low DM mass. Finally, we compute the "neutrino-floor" that will limit future direct detection searches for cosmic ray-upscattered dark matter. While we focus on vector interactions for illustration, we emphasize that the energy dependence is critical in determining accurate bounds on any particle physics model of Dark Matter-CR interactions from experimental data on this scenario.