EUSO-SPB2 sensitivity to macroscopic dark matter

TL;DR

This paper evaluates EUSO-SPB2's ability to detect macroscopic dark matter by analyzing atmospheric fluorescence signals caused by macros passing through the atmosphere, aiming to constrain macro properties.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate EUSO-SPB2's sensitivity to macro dark matter in the mass-cross section parameter space.

Findings

EUSO-SPB2 can detect macros within certain mass and cross section ranges.

The study provides bounds on macro properties based on atmospheric fluorescence signals.

It extends the search for dark matter to macroscopic candidates using atmospheric observations.

Abstract

Macroscopic dark matter (or macro) provides a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter. These candidates would transfer energy primarily through elastic scattering, and this linear energy deposition would produce observable signals if a macro were to traverse the atmosphere. We study the fluorescence emission produced by a macro passing through the atmosphere. We estimate the sensitivity of EUSO-SPB2 to constrain the two-dimensional parameter space ($\sigma$ vs. $M$), where $M$ is the macro mass and $\sigma$ its cross sectional area.