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Title: Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter

Abstract

Dark matter detectors built primarily to probe elastic scattering of WIMPs on nuclei are also precise probes of light, weakly coupled, particles that may be absorbed by the detector material. In this paper, we derive constraints on the minimal model of dark matter comprised of long-lived vector states V (dark photons) in the 0.01–100KeV mass range. The absence of an ionization signal in direct detection experiments such as XENON10 and XENON100 places a very strong constraint on the dark photon mixing angle, down to Ο(10–15), assuming that dark photons comprise the dominant fraction of dark matter. This sensitivity to dark photon dark matter exceeds the indirect bounds derived from stellar energy loss considerations over a significant fraction of the available mass range. As a result, we also revisit indirect constraints from V → 3γ decay and show that limits from modifications to the cosmological ionization history are comparable to the updated limits from the diffuse γ-ray flux.

Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
OSTI Identifier:
1198549
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1455205
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0011632
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Physics Letters. B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Physics Letters. B Journal Volume: 747 Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0370-2693
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
Netherlands
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

An, Haipeng, Pospelov, Maxim, Pradler, Josef, and Ritz, Adam. Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter. Netherlands: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2015.06.018.
An, Haipeng, Pospelov, Maxim, Pradler, Josef, & Ritz, Adam. Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter. Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.06.018
An, Haipeng, Pospelov, Maxim, Pradler, Josef, and Ritz, Adam. Wed . "Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter". Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.06.018.
@article{osti_1198549,
title = {Direct detection constraints on dark photon dark matter},
author = {An, Haipeng and Pospelov, Maxim and Pradler, Josef and Ritz, Adam},
abstractNote = {Dark matter detectors built primarily to probe elastic scattering of WIMPs on nuclei are also precise probes of light, weakly coupled, particles that may be absorbed by the detector material. In this paper, we derive constraints on the minimal model of dark matter comprised of long-lived vector states V (dark photons) in the 0.01–100KeV mass range. The absence of an ionization signal in direct detection experiments such as XENON10 and XENON100 places a very strong constraint on the dark photon mixing angle, down to Ο(10–15), assuming that dark photons comprise the dominant fraction of dark matter. This sensitivity to dark photon dark matter exceeds the indirect bounds derived from stellar energy loss considerations over a significant fraction of the available mass range. As a result, we also revisit indirect constraints from V → 3γ decay and show that limits from modifications to the cosmological ionization history are comparable to the updated limits from the diffuse γ-ray flux.},
doi = {10.1016/j.physletb.2015.06.018},
journal = {Physics Letters. B},
number = C,
volume = 747,
place = {Netherlands},
year = {Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.06.018

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 175 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: A summary of constraints on the dark photon kinetic mixing parameter κ as a function of vector mass mV (see Secs. 2 and 3 for the details). The thick lines exclude the region above for dark photons with dark matter relic density. The solid (dashed) line is frommore » XENON10 (XENON100); the limit from XMASS is taken from [26]. The dash-dotted lines show our newly derived constraints on the diffuse γ-ray flux from V → 3γ decays, assuming that decays contribute 100% (thick line) or 10% (thin line) to the observed flux. The thick dotted line is the corresponding constraint from CMB energy injection. Shaded regions depict (previously considered) astrophysical constraints that are independent of the dark photon relic density. The limits from anomalous energy loss in the sun (sun), horizontal branch stars (HB), and red giant stars (RG) are labeled. The shaded region that is mostly inside the solar constraint is the XENON10 limit derived from the solar flux.« less

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.