Limits on sub-GeV dark matter from the PROSPECT reactor antineutrino experiment
M. Andriamirado, A. B. Balantekin, H. R. Band, C.D. Bass, Denis E. Bergeron, N. S. Bowden, C.D. Bryan, T. Classen, Andrew Conant, G. Deichert, M. Diwan, M. J. Dolinski, Anna Erickson, B. T. Foust, J. K. Gaison, A. Galindo-Uribarri, C. E. Gilbert, S. Hans, A. B. Hansell, K. M. Heeger, B. Heffron, D. E. Jaffe, S. Jayakumar, X. B. Ji, D. Jones, J. Koblanski, O. Kyzylova, C. Lane, T. J. Langford, J. LaRosa, B. R. Littlejohn, X. Lu, J. Maricic, M. P. Mendenhall, A. M. Meyer, R. Milincic, P. E. Mueller, H. P. Mumm, J. Napolitano, R. Neilson, J. A. Nikkel, S. Nour, J. L. Palomino, D. A. Pushin, X. Qian, R. Rosero, P. T. Surukuchi, M. A. Tyra, R. L. Varner, D. Venegas-Vargas, P. Weatherly, C. White, J. Wilhelmi, A. Woolverton, M. Yeh, C. Zhang, Xianyi Zhang, Christopher V. Cappiello
Abstract
If dark matter has mass lower than around 1 GeV, it will not impart enough energy to cause detectable nuclear recoils in many direct-detection experiments. However, if dark matter is upscattered to high energy by collisions with cosmic rays, it may be detectable in both direct-detection experiments and neutrino experiments. We report the results of a dedicated search for boosted dark matter upscattered by cosmic rays, using $\ensuremath{\sim}14.6$ solar days of data from the PROSPECT reactor antineutrino experiment. We show that such a flux of upscattered dark matter would display characteristic diurnal sidereal modulation, and use this to set new experimental constraints on sub-GeV dark matter exhibiting large interaction cross sections.