Searching for dark matter annihilation to monoenergetic neutrinos with liquid scintillation detectors

Abstract

We consider searches for dark matter annihilation to monoenergetic neutrinos in the core of the Sun. We find that liquid scintillation neutrino detectors have enhanced sensitivity to this class of dark matter models, due to the energy and angular resolution possible for electron neutrinos and antineutrinos that scatter via charged-current interactions. In particular we find that KamLAND, utilizing existing data, could provide better sensitivity to such models than any current direct detection experiment for m X 15 Gev. KamLAND's sensitivity is signal-limited, and future liquid scintillation or liquid argon detectors with similar energy and angular resolution, but with larger exposure, will provide significantly better sensitivity. These detectors may be particularly powerful probes of dark matter with mass (10) GeV.