A COHERENT constraint on leptophobic dark matter using CsI data

TL;DR

This paper uses the COHERENT CsI detector data to set new constraints on sub-GeV leptophobic dark matter models, significantly improving previous limits and exploring the parameter space relevant for dark matter relic abundance.

Contribution

The study provides the first constraints on leptophobic dark matter using CsI data, improving existing bounds by two orders of magnitude and probing the relevant relic abundance region.

Findings

No evidence for leptophobic dark matter was observed.

The new limits improve previous constraints by two orders of magnitude.

The results set the best constraints at mediator masses around twice the dark matter mass.

Abstract

We use data from the COHERENT CsI[Na] scintillation detector to constrain sub-GeV leptophobic dark matter models. This detector was built to observe low-energy nuclear recoils from coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering. These capabilities enable searches for dark matter particles produced at the Spallation Neutron Source mediated by a vector portal particle with masses between 2 and 400 MeV/c$^2$. No evidence for dark matter is observed and a limit on the mediator coupling to quarks is placed. This constraint improves upon previous results by two orders of magnitude. This newly explored parameter space probes the region where the dark matter relic abundance is explained by leptophobic dark matter when the mediator mass is roughly twice the dark matter mass. COHERENT sets the best constraint on leptophobic dark matter at these masses.