Date: Tuesday March 1, 2022 at 4pm
Location: online
Abstract
The next generation of dark matter direct detection experiments will become so sensitive that they will begin to expose themselves to an irreducible background of solar neutrinos, complicating the search for dark matter. However, this will also present them with the compelling opportunity to search for neutrino physics beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will show how direct detection experiments will be able to use solar neutrinos as invaluable messengers of potential light new physics in the neutrino sector.
I will begin with a short introduction to the gauged $U(1)_{L_\mu – L_\tau}$ model—an elegant possible extension to the Standard Model. This model introduces a new gauge boson that couples to neutrinos and can stand to not only resolve the observed tension in the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, but also rectify the long-standing discrepancy between early- and late-time measurements of the Hubble constant. I will show that, by treating the solar neutrino rate as a signal, direct detection experiments will be sensitive to as-yet unprobed regions of this model’s parameter space able to explain both of these anomalies simultaneously. Furthermore, I will argue that, with some enhancements to its projected experimental configuration, the far-future experiment DARWIN will be able to make a 5$\sigma$ discovery of this new gauge boson.
These findings indicate that direct detection experiments will become key players in the search for new neutrino physics, providing us with entirely new information on physics beyond the Standard Model.