Dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) can be captured by the Sun and the Earth, sink to their cores, annihilate and produce neutrinos that can be searched for with neutrino telescopes. The calculation of the capture rates of WIMPs in the Sun and especially the Earth are affected by large uncertainties coming mainly from effects of the planets in the Solar System, reducing the capture rates by up to an order of magnitude (or even more in some cases). We show that the WIMPs captured by weak scatterings in the Sun also constitute an important bound WIMP population in the Solar System. Taking this population and its interplay with the population bound through gravitational diffusion into account cancel the planetary effects on the capture rates, and the capture essentially proceeds as if the Sun and the Earth were free in the galactic halo. The neutrino signals from the Sun and the Earth are thus significantly higher than claimed in the scenarios with reduced capture rates.
Dark matter in the solar system II: WIMP annihilation rates in the Sun
我们计算了太阳中弱相互作用大质量粒子（WIMP）的湮灭率随其质量和弹性散射截面的变化。湮灭的副产品之一，μ子中微子，可能会被下一代中微子望远镜观测到。先前对湮灭率的估计假设来自银河系暗晕的任何WIMP被太阳核的弹性散射捕获，并在太阳中迅速达到热平衡。我们表明，太阳的光学深度WIMP和行星的引力都有助于降低湮灭率低于这些估计。虽然我们发现，即将到来的km^3级中微子望远镜对~100 GeV WIMP的灵敏度与之前的估计几乎没有变化，但这些实验对~10 TeV WIMP的灵敏度可能比标准计算所建议的要低一个数量级。湮灭率的新估计将指导未来的实验设计，并改善从中微子事件率到WIMP参数空间的映射。
Dark Kinetic Heating of Neutron Stars and An Infrared Window On WIMPs, SIMPs, and Pure Higgsinos
我们确定了一个很大程度上独立于模型的暗物质与核子和电子的相互作用的签名。星系晕中的暗物质，在引力作用下加速到光速的一半以上，向中子星散射，并将动能储存到中子星中，将中子星加热到红外黑体温度。由此产生的辐射可能会被詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜，三十米望远镜或欧洲极大望远镜探测到。这种机制也会产生星系核球中中子星的光辐射，以及星系中心附近的X射线辐射，因为这些区域的暗物质密度更大。对于GeV-PeV质量的暗物质，暗动力学加热最初会暴露任何自旋无关或自旋相关的暗物质-核子截面超过$2 \times 10^{-45}$ cm $^2$，在更多的望远镜曝光后，灵敏度会提高。对于轻于GeV的暗物质，由于泡利阻塞，截面灵敏度与暗物质质量成反比;对于重于PeV的暗物质，由于需要多个散射体来捕获，截面灵敏度与质量成线性比例。未来对暗区加热的中子星的观测可以确定暗物质是在中子星中湮灭还是仅仅动力学加热。由于在相对论性的核子散射中会发生高达几个GeV的非弹性态间跃迁，因此也可以发现像纯希格斯玻色子那样难以捉摸的非弹性暗物质。
