English

Novel Search for absorption of ultra-light fermionic dark matter on electron with cosmic ray boost

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2025-02-24 v1 High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

The search for the absorption of fermionic dark matter (DM) on electron is hindered by a partial or complete loss of sensitivity for the mass of DM (mχm_\chi) below O(10)\mathcal{O} (10) keV. We introduce a novel search using a small but high-energy portion of DM boosted by cosmic rays, and the loss of sensitivity is circumvented because the subsequent absorption within the detector imparts to the target electron not only mχm_\chi but also substantial TχT_\chi. The one-sided 90\% confidence level constraints on (σevχ\sigma_e v_\chi) are derived with the XENONnT public dataset for mχm_\chi \in (1×\times105^{-5}--1) keV which has not been explored yet. Our results have placed constraints on DM at the lowest mχm_\chi currently achievable among the DMDD experiments utilizing ionizing signals from DM interactions within the detectors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.15282,
  title  = {Novel Search for absorption of ultra-light fermionic dark matter on electron with cosmic ray boost},
  author = {X. P. Geng and B. Zhong and Z. H. Zhang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.15282},
  year   = {2025}
}