9–11 Nov 2019
The PIT
America/New_York timezone

Searching for Light Dark Matter with Fixed Target Neutrino Experiments

9 Nov 2019, 14:20
20m
The PIT

The PIT

462 W Franklin St Chapel Hill, NC 27516 USA

Speaker

Dr Patrick deNiverville (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Description

We consider a model of light (sub-GeV) dark matter that escapes many
of the bounds placed by current dark matter searches. Such low mass
dark matter candidates, if produced as a thermal relic in the early
universe, must be accompanied by light mediators in order to reproduce
the dark matter abundance observed in the present-day universe. These
light mediators provide new channels for the production and detection
of dark matter at fixed-target neutrino experiments, and proton beam
dumps. Detectors sensitive to neutrinos could detect the resulting
relativistic dark matter beam through neutral-current-like
interactions. Coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering experiments such as
COHERENT and Coherent Captain-Mills could produce these dark matter
candidates through neutral pion decay at a rate similar to that of
neutrinos. Low energy, coherent scattering channels can significantly
enhance the expected dark matter signal beyond that expected at higher
energy fixed-target experiments and provide unique sensitivity to
light dark matter candidates.

Primary author

Dr Patrick deNiverville (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

Presentation materials