Present and future status of light dark matter models from cosmic-ray electron upscattering

TL;DR

This paper explores how cosmic-ray electron scattering can accelerate light dark matter, enhancing detection prospects, and assesses current and future experimental constraints, highlighting DUNE's potential to surpass existing bounds.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of cosmic-ray upscattered dark matter constraints using current and future experiments, revealing DUNE's superior sensitivity.

Findings

Super-Kamiokande and XENON1T already constrain high-energy dark matter flux.

Future experiments like DUNE and Hyper-K will improve sensitivity.

DUNE can outperform Super-Kamiokande in constraining cosmic-ray upscattered dark matter.

Abstract

Non-relativistic Dark Matter (DM) can be accelerated by scattering on high-energy cosmic-ray (CR) electrons. This process leads to a sub-population of relativistic or semi-relativistic DM which extends the experimental reach for direct detection in the sub-GeV mass regime. In this paper we examine the current and future potential of this mechanism for constraining models of light dark matter. In particular, we find that Super-Kamiokande and XENON1T data can already provide leading constraints on the flux of dark matter that has been accelerated to high energies from cosmic ray electrons. We also examine future projected sensitivities for DUNE and Hyper-K, and contrary to previous findings, conclude that DUNE will be able supersede Super-K bounds on cosmic-ray upscattered DM for a variety of DM models.