Time-delayed neutrino emission from supernovae as a probe of dark matter-neutrino interactions

TL;DR

This paper explores how supernova neutrino signals can reveal interactions between dark matter and neutrinos, especially through delayed neutrino signals caused by dark matter interactions, offering a new way to probe dark matter properties.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of neutrino echoes caused by dark matter-neutrino interactions and demonstrates their potential to explore new dark matter parameter space.

Findings

Dark matter-neutrino interactions can cause significant time delays in neutrino signals.

Neutrino light curves can be used to constrain dark matter properties beyond direct detection.

Next-generation neutrino detectors can observe these effects from Galactic supernovae.

Abstract

Thermal MeV neutrino emission from core-collapse supernovae offers a unique opportunity to probe physics beyond the Standard Model in the neutrino sector. The next generation of neutrino experiments, such as DUNE and Hyper-Kamiokande, can detect $\mathcal{O}(10^3)$ and $\mathcal{O}(10^4)$ neutrinos in the event of a Galactic supernova, respectively. As supernova neutrinos propagate to Earth, they may interact with the local dark matter via hidden mediators and may be delayed with respect to the initial neutrino signal. We show that for sub-MeV dark matter, the presence of dark matter-neutrino interactions may lead to neutrino echoes with significant time delays. The absence or presence of this feature in the light curve of MeV neutrinos from a supernova allows us to probe parameter space that has not been explored by dark matter direct detection experiments.