Cosmic-ray boosted dark matter in Xe-based direct detection experiments

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of detecting cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV dark matter in Xe-based experiments, improving existing constraints and projecting future sensitivities of upcoming detectors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to search for cosmic-ray boosted dark matter and provides updated constraints and future detection prospects for Xe-based experiments.

Findings

LZ constraints improved by a factor of ~2 for some parameter regions

XENONnT and Darwin will be sensitive to smaller cross sections by factors of ~3 and ~10

No dark matter signal detected so far

Abstract

LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) collaboration has achieved the strongest constraint on weak-scale dark matter (DM)-nucleon spin-independent (SI) scattering cross section in a large region of parameter space. In this paper, we take a complementary approach and study the prospect of detecting cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV DM in LZ. In the absence of a signal for DM, we improve upon the previous constraints by a factor of $\sim 2$ using the LZ result for some regions of the parameter space. We also show that upcoming XENONnT and future Darwin experiments will be sensitive to cross sections smaller by factors of $\sim 3$ and $\sim 10$ compared to the current LZ limit, respectively.