Impact of loop-induced processes on the boosted dark matter interpretation of the XENON1T excess

TL;DR

This paper investigates how loop-induced processes affect the interpretation of the XENON1T excess as boosted dark matter, revealing that current constraints challenge the viability of this explanation for certain mass ranges.

Contribution

It introduces the role of loop-generated processes in boosted dark matter models and assesses their impact on direct detection constraints.

Findings

Loop processes link dark matter to electrons and quarks, affecting detection signals.

Current constraints exclude high-mass boosted dark matter explanations for the XENON1T excess.

Radiative corrections are crucial for accurate interpretation of dark matter signals.

Abstract

We consider the boosted dark matter solution of the XENON1T excess to constrain the framework through loop-generated processes. The interaction of the boosted dark matter component, which sources the signal, effectively couples the cold dark matter background to the electrons, making it potentially visible in the electron recoil searches. Similarly, once the radiative corrections due to the Standard Model are taken into account, dark matter also scatters on quarks and becomes observable in nuclear recoil measurements. By analysing these processes, we find that the current direct detection constraints exclude the upper mass range selected by the anomaly if the boosted component is generated through dark matter annihilation.