JUNO sensitivity to the annihilation of MeV dark matter in the galactic halo

• Published in: Journal of cosmology and astroparticle physics 2023-09, Vol.2023 (9), p.1
• Main Authors: Aleem, Abid, Alexandros, Tsagkarakis, Auguste, Didier, Baldini, Wander, Bolshakova, Anastasia, Chan, Chi, Chen, Guoming, Chen, Pingping, Cheng, Yu Chin, Lorenzo, Selma Conforti Di, Taille, Christophe De La, Depnering, Wilfried, Dracos, Marcos, Fan, Lei, Gong, Hui, Grassi, Marco, Guo, Xinheng, Hagner, Caren, Han, Ran, Heinz, Tobias, Hu, Bei-Zhen, Hu, Yuxiang, Huang, Guihong, Hui, Jiaqi, Huo, Lei, Jiang, Wei, Kang, Li, Korablev, Denis, Kouzakov, Konstantin, Krasnoperov, Alexey, Leitner, Rupert, Li, Fei, Li, Nan, Li, Rui, Li, Xiaomei, Li, Yichen, Li, Zepeng, Li, Zonghai, Liang, Hao, Liao, Jiajun, Limphirat, Ayut, Lin, Guey-Lin, Liu, Fang, Liu, Hongjuan, Liu, Hongtao, Lombardo, Claudio, Lu, Chuan, Lu, Junguang, Lu, Shuxiang, Luo, Guang, Lyashuk, Vladimir, Ma, Bangzheng, Magoni, Marco, Martini, Agnese, Nastasi, Massimiliano, Oberauer, Lothar, Ortica, Fausto, Pelicci, Luca, Peng, Anguo, Pilarczyk, Oliver, Qi, Fazhi, Qian, Sen, Qian, Xiaohui, Rebber, Henning, Ren, Jie, Sawatzki, Julia, Schweizer, Konstantin, Sharov, Vladislav, Siripak, Jaruchit, Sogo-Bezerra, Thiago, Štefánik, Dušan, Treskov, Konstantin, Triossi, Andrea, Votano, Lucia, Wang, Chung-Hsiang, Wang, Yi, Wen, Liangjian, Wu, Diru, Wurtz, Jacques, Xie, Zhangquan, Xin, Zhao, Xu, Cheng, Xu, Jilei, Xu, Yin, Yang, Jie, Ye, Mei, Ye, Ziping, You, Zhengyun, Yu, Miao, Yuan, Zhenxiong, Zeng, Shan, Zhang, Bin, Zhang, Jialiang, Zhang, Shu, Zhang, Xiaomei, Zhang, Yumei, Zhang, Zhenyu, Zhao, Rong, Zhao, Shujun, Zhu, Zhihang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antiparticles; Astrophysics; Beta decay; Dark matter; Fast neutrons; Galactic halos; High Energy Physics - Experiment; High Energy Physics - Phenomenology; Muons; neutrino astronomy; neutrino detectors; neutrino experiments; Neutrinos; Physics; Pulse shape; Sensitivity
• ISSN: 1475-7516; 1475-7508; 1475-7516
• DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2023/09/001

We discuss JUNO sensitivity to the annihilation of MeV dark matter in the galactic halo via detecting inverse beta decay reactions of electron anti-neutrinos resulting from the annihilation. We study possible backgrounds to the signature, including the reactor neutrinos, diffuse supernova neutrino background, charged- and neutral-current interactions of atmospheric neutrinos, backgrounds from muon-induced fast neutrons and cosmogenic isotopes. A fiducial volume cut, as well as the pulse shape discrimination and the muon veto are applied to suppress the above backgrounds. It is shown that JUNO sensitivity to the thermally averaged dark matter annihilation rate in 10 years of exposure would be significantly better than the present-day best limit set by Super-Kamiokande and would be comparable to that expected by Hyper-Kamiokande.