Signatures of afterglows from light dark matter boosted by supernova neutrinos in current and future large underground detectors

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework to analyze supernova neutrino boosted dark matter signals, exploring their temporal, angular, and spectral features, and assesses detection prospects in large underground detectors for new physics insights.

Contribution

It extends previous work by providing a general flux calculation framework and detailed analysis of SN neutrino boosted dark matter signatures for any galactic supernova.

Findings

Identifies unique temporal and spectral signatures of SN neutrino boosted dark matter.

Derives sensitivities for Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande, and DUNE to new physics models.

Provides constraints on dark matter interactions from future supernova observations.

Abstract

Supernova neutrino boosted dark matter (SN$\nu$ BDM) and its afterglow effect have been shown to be a promising signature for beyond Standard Model (bSM) physics. The time-evolution feature of SN$\nu$ BDM allows for %the possibly direct inference of DM mass $m_\chi$, and results in significant background suppression with improving sensitivity. This paper extends the earlier study and provides a general framework for computing the SN$\nu$ BDM fluxes for a supernova that occurs at any location in our galaxy. A bSM $U(1)_{L_\mu-L_\tau}$ model with its gauge boson coupling to both DM and the second and third generation of leptons is considered, which allows for both DM-$\nu$ and DM-$e$ interactions. Detailed analysis of the temporal profile, angular distribution, and energy spectrum of the SN$\nu$ BDM are performed. Unique signatures in SN$\nu$ BDM allowing extraction of $m_\chi$ and detail features that contain information of the underlying interaction type are discussed. Expected sensitivities on the above new physics model from Super-Kamiokande, Hyper-Kamiokande, and DUNE detections of BDM events induced by the next galactic SN are derived and compared with the existing bounds.