Constraining dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section by the background electron anti-neutrino flux data

TL;DR

This paper uses electron neutrino flux limits from Super-Kamiokande to set new, more stringent constraints on dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections by considering Earth as a natural detector.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of constraining dark matter interactions using neutrino flux data, surpassing previous direct detection limits in certain mass ranges.

Findings

More stringent limits on dark matter-nucleon cross sections for specific mass ranges.

Constraints surpassing those from PICO direct-detection experiment for certain channels.

Effective use of neutrino flux data as a natural dark matter detector.

Abstract

Celestial objects such as stars and planets might be able to capture a large amount of dark matter particles through dark matter-nucleon scattering. Many previous studies have considered different celestial objects such as the Sun and the Earth as natural dark matter detectors and obtained some stringent bounds of the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section. In this study, we use the $\sim 10$ MeV electron neutrino flux limits obtained by the Super-Kamiokande experiment and consider the Earth as a large natural dark matter detector to constrain the dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section. We show that this method can generally get more stringent limits. For certain ranges of dark matter mass annihilating via the $b\bar{b}$ channel, the limits of cross section for the isospin-independent scattering and proton-only scattering could be more stringent than that obtained in the PICO direct-detection experiment.