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Published March 15, 2011 | Published + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Turning off the lights: How dark is dark matter?

Abstract

We consider current observational constraints on the electromagnetic charge of dark matter. The velocity dependence of the scattering cross section through the photon gives rise to qualitatively different constraints than standard dark matter scattering through massive force carriers. In particular, recombination epoch observations of dark matter density perturbations require that ϵ, the ratio of the dark matter to electronic charge, is less than 10^(−6) for m_x=1 GeV, rising to ϵ < 10^(-4) for m_x=10 TeV. Though naively one would expect that dark matter carrying a charge well below this constraint could still give rise to large scattering in current direct detection experiments, we show that charged dark matter particles that could be detected with upcoming experiments are expected to be evacuated from the Galactic disk by the Galactic magnetic fields and supernova shock waves and hence will not give rise to a signal. Thus dark matter with a small charge is likely not a source of a signal in current or upcoming dark matter direct detection experiments.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Physical Society. (Received 24 November 2010; published 9 March 2011) We thank Matt Buckley, Jonathan Feng, Manoj Kaplinghat, Aaron Pierce, Dan Feldman, and Itay Yavin for discussions.

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevD.83.063509.pdf

Submitted - 1011.2907.pdf

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