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Title: Pinning down inelastic dark matter in the Sun and in direct detection

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Theoretical physics, School of Engineering Sciences, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, AlbaNova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm (Sweden)

We study the solar capture rate of inelastic dark matter with endothermic and/or exothermic interactions. By assuming that an inelastic dark matter signal will be observed in next generation direct detection experiments we can set a lower bound on the capture rate that is independent of the local dark matter density, the velocity distribution, the galactic escape velocity as well as the scattering cross section. In combination with upper limits from neutrino observatories we can place upper bounds on the annihilation channels leading to neutrinos. We find that, while endothermic scattering limits are weak in the isospin-conserving case, strong bounds may be set for exothermic interactions, in particular in the spin-dependent case. Furthermore, we study the implications of observing two direct detection signals, in which case one can halo-independently obtain the dark matter mass and the mass splitting, and disentangle the endothermic/exothermic nature of the scattering. Finally we discuss isospin violation.

OSTI ID:
22524903
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 04; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English