Searching for Dark Matter with MeVCube

TL;DR

MeVCube, a proposed CubeSat mission targeting the MeV gamma-ray sky, has strong potential to improve dark matter detection capabilities, especially for primordial black holes and particle dark matter decay or annihilation.

Contribution

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of MeVCube's potential to detect dark matter signals in the MeV gamma-ray range.

Findings

MeVCube significantly outperforms current limits in dark matter parameter space.

It can detect signals from evaporating primordial black holes.

It enhances prospects for discovering dark matter through non-gravitational interactions.

Abstract

CubeSat technology is an emerging alternative to large-scale space telescopes due to its short development time and cost-effectiveness. MeVCube is a proposed CubeSat mission to study the least explored MeV gamma-ray sky, also known as the `MeV gap'. Besides being sensitive to a plethora of astrophysical phenomena, MeVCube can also be important in the hunt for dark matter. If dark matter is made up of evaporating primordial black holes, then it can produce photons in the sensitivity range of MeVCube. Besides, particle dark matter can also decay or annihilate to produce final state gamma-ray photons. We perform the first comprehensive study of dark matter discovery potential of a near-future MeVCube CubeSat mission. In all cases, we find that MeVCube will have much better discovery reach compared to existing limits in the parameter space. This may be an important step towards discovering dark matter through its non-gravitational interactions.