Comment on "Probing the Dark Matter-Electron Interactions via Hydrogen-Atmosphere Pulsating White Dwarfs''

TL;DR

This paper refines the constraints on dark matter-electron interaction detection using pulsating white dwarfs, establishing a lower mass limit around 1.4 GeV and clarifying the parameter space for future studies.

Contribution

It determines the exact lower limit of testable dark matter particle mass in the proposed white dwarf pulsation method, refining previous estimations.

Findings

Lower limit of testable DM mass ~1.4 GeV

Provides a clear upper mass limit for future research

Refines the parameter space for DM-electron interaction detection

Abstract

In Phys. Rev. D 98, 103023 (2018), a novel scenario was proposed to probe the interactions between dark matter (DM) particles and electrons, via hydrogen-atmosphere pulsating white dwarfs (DAVs) in globular clusters. The estimation showed that the scenario could hopefully test the parameter space: $5 \mathrm{GeV} \le m_{\chi} \le 10^{4} \mathrm{GeV}$ and $\sigma_{\chi,e} \ge 10^{-40} \mathrm{cm}^{2}$, where $m_{\chi}$ is the DM particle's mass and $\sigma_{\chi,e}$ is the elastic scattering cross section between DM and electron. In this comment, we have determined the exact lower limit of the testable DM particle mass $\sim 1.38 - 1.58 \mathrm{GeV}$, which depends on $\sigma_{\chi,e}$. This gives us a credible lower limit of the testable DM particle mass in above scenario, and provide a clear upper limit of the DM particle mass which we should consider in future research.