Super-Kamiokande Strongly Constrains Leptophilic Dark Matter Capture in the Sun

Published 24 Jan 2025 in astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.SR, and hep-ph | (2501.14864v2)

Abstract: The Sun can efficiently capture leptophilic dark matter that scatters with free electrons. If this dark matter subsequently annihilates into leptonic states, it can produce a detectable neutrino flux. Using 10 years of Super-Kamiokande observations, we set constraints on the dark-matter/electron scattering cross-section that exceed terrestrial direct detection searches by more than an order of magnitude for dark matter masses below 100 GeV, and reach cross-sections as low as $\sim$4$\times$10$^{{-41}$cm$^{-2}$.}