• Physics 16, s11
Interactions with cosmic rays might make low-mass darkish matter particles detectable by neutrino observatories. However an evaluation of 20 years’ price of knowledge reveals no indicators of the particles.
Kamioka Observatory; ICRR; College of Tokyo
Within the hunt for darkish matter, many of the easiest-to-search-for particle lots have already been dominated out. Nonetheless empty-handed, physicists are extending their searches to the lighter finish of the potential mass vary: beneath 1 GeV. As a part of that effort, the group behind the Tremendous-Kamiokande experiment in Japan have now analyzed greater than 20 years’ price of knowledge to constrain the properties of darkish matter particles with lots between 1 and 300 MeV [1].
Tremendous-Kamiokande consists of a 50,000-tonne tank of water buried in a disused mine. The experiment was designed to measure neutrinos by detecting their uncommon interactions with electrons or nucleons within the water. These interactions can produce secondary particles that journey sooner than the velocity of sunshine in water and generate flashes of so-called Cherenkov radiation that may be detected by sensors lining the water tank. Such flashes are additionally predicted to seem when incoming darkish matter particles collide with—and thereby speed up—hydrogen nuclei within the water. However for that to occur, the light-weight darkish matter particles need to be touring unusually quick, which requires a “enhance” from collisions with hadronic cosmic rays.
Utilizing information collected between 1996 and 2018, the group looked for such occasions by analyzing the Cherenkov sign from particles coming from the course of the Milky Approach’s middle, the place darkish matter is considered densest. Discovering nothing past the anticipated neutrino signature, the researchers established the strongest constraints but on the interplay cross part of this cosmic-ray-boosted, light-weight darkish matter with hydrogen.
–Marric Stephens
Marric Stephens is a Corresponding Editor for Physics Journal primarily based in Bristol, UK.
References
- Okay. Abe et al. (Tremendous-Kamiokande Collaboration), “Seek for cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV darkish matter utilizing recoil protons at Tremendous-Kamiokande,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 031802 (2023).