Snowmass 2021 White Paper: Cosmogenic Dark Matter and Exotic Particle Searches in Neutrino Experiments

TL;DR

This paper reviews the potential of neutrino experiments to detect cosmogenic dark matter and exotic particles, highlighting recent theoretical models, experimental strategies, and future research directions in this emerging field.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent theoretical models, experimental techniques, and future prospects for detecting cosmogenic dark matter and exotic particles using neutrino detectors.

Findings

Neutrino detectors are sensitive to boosted dark matter signals.

Large-volume neutrino experiments can explore slow-moving dark matter interactions.

Current and upcoming strategies enhance the search for cosmogenic dark matter.

Abstract

The signals from outer space and their detection have been playing an important role in particle physics, especially in discoveries of and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM); beyond the evidence of dark matter (DM), for example, the neutrinos produced from the dark matter annihilation is important for the indirect DM searches. Moreover, a wide range of new, well-motivated physics models and dark-sector scenarios have been proposed in the last decade, predicting cosmogenic signals complementary to those in the conventional direct detection of particle-like dark matter. Most notably, various mechanisms to produce (semi-)relativistic DM particles in the present universe (e.g. boosted dark matter) have been put forward, while being consistent with current observational and experimental constraints on DM. The resulting signals often have less intense and more energetic fluxes, to which underground, kiloton-scale neutrino detectors can be readily sensitive. In addition, the scattering of slow-moving DM can give rise to a sizable energy deposit if the underlying dark-sector model allows for a large mass difference between the initial and final state particles, and the neutrino experiments with large volume detectors are well suited for exploring these opportunities. This White Paper is devoted to discussing the scientific importance of the cosmogenic dark matter and exotic particle searches, not only overviewing the recent efforts in both the theory and the experiment communities but also providing future perspectives and directions on this research branch. A landscape of technologies used in neutrino detectors and their complementarity is discussed, and the current and developing analysis strategies are outlined.