The Sun: Light Dark Matter and Sterile Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a two-particle dark matter model, involving sterile neutrinos and light dark matter, affects solar neutrino observations, setting constraints on model parameters using current and future detector data.

Contribution

It introduces a 3+1 neutrino oscillation model with dark matter particles and derives new bounds on their properties from solar neutrino measurements.

Findings

Upper limit on the ratio G_φ/m_φ < 10^{30} G_F eV^{-1} from current data.

Time variability amplitude must be below 3% for small Fermi constant models.

Future detectors like Darwin can further constrain these dark matter models.

Abstract

Next-generation experiments allow for the possibility to testing the neutrino flavor oscillation model to very high levels of accuracy. Here, we explore the possibility that the dark matter in the current universe is made of two particles, a sterile neutrino and a very light dark matter particle. By using a 3+1 neutrino flavor oscillation model, we study how such a type of dark matter imprints the solar neutrino fluxes, spectra, and survival probabilities of electron neutrinos. The current solar neutrino measurements allow us to define an upper limit for the ratio of the mass of a light dark matter particle $m_\phi$ and the Fermi constant $G_\phi$, such that $G_\phi/m_\phi $ must be smaller than $10^{30}\; G_{\rm F}\; eV^{-1}$ to be in agreement with current solar neutrino data from the Borexino, Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, and Super-Kamiokande detectors. Moreover, for models with a very small Fermi constant, the amplitude of the time variability must be lower than $3\%$ to be consistent with current solar neutrino data. We also found that solar neutrino detectors like Darwin, able to measure neutrino fluxes in the low energy-range with high accuracy, will provide additional constraints to this class of models that complement the ones obtained from the current solar neutrino detectors.