Dark Matter – Direct Detection and Capture in the Sun

Sammanfattning: Dark matter has been inferred from various observations such as in galaxy clusters, flat galactic rotation curves, gravitational lensing measurements and the cosmic microwave background. Despite overwhelming observational evidence and ongoing searches, a clear signal of dark matter has not yet been detected. Searches for dark matter include direct detection of dark matter scattering off target nuclei in underground detectors and indirect detection of dark matter annihilation- and decay products. A promising way to detect these invisible particles is by capture of dark matter in the Sun. Dark matter from the galactic halo is assumed to scatter off solar nuclei and being captured provided that their velocities are smaller than the Sun's escape velocity. The captured particles are assumed to continuously scatter until reaching thermal equilibrium. As dark matter is accumulated in the Sun, they will start to annihilate. The resulting annihilation products are what we hope to detect on Earth. We review the capture rate of elastic and inelastic dark matter in the Sun and dark matter direct detection. Lower bounds on the solar capture rate for a given dark matter mass can be obtained independently of halo-related properties e.g., the dark matter velocity distribution and local density, if one assumes that a direct detection signal has been observed. These bounds can be compared to solar neutrino flux bounds in detectors to obtain limits on the branching fraction of annihilation of dark matter resulting in neutrinos. Lower bounds for the elastic and exothermic inelastic dark matter are computed assuming the Standard Halo Model. The exothermic bounds are strong and larger than the elastic bounds as well as those that would be obtained in the endothermic case.