Constraining Vector Dark Matter with Neutrino experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how vector dark matter interacting with neutrino flavors can alter neutrino oscillations, using experimental data to constrain its properties and projecting future detection capabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to constrain vector dark matter through neutrino oscillation modifications and demonstrates the strength of current and future experimental bounds.

Findings

Super-Kamiokande data rules out significant VDM parameter space

Future experiments like DUNE can further probe VDM signatures

VDM effects produce distinctive time and directional neutrino oscillation patterns

Abstract

Vector Dark Matter (VDM) that couples to lepton flavor ($L_e$, $L_{\mu}$, $L_{\tau}$) acts similarly to a chemical potential for the neutrino flavor eigenstates and modifies neutrino oscillations. VDM imparts unique signatures such as time and directional dependence with longer baselines giving better sensitivity. We use the non-observation of such a signal at Super-Kamiokande to rule out the existence of VDM in a region of parameter space several orders of magnitude beyond other constraints and show the projected reach of future experiments such as DUNE.