Speaker
Mr
Axel Widmark
(Stockholm University)
Description
In the process of dark matter capture by the Sun, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles
(WIMPs) from the galactic halo can scatter against atomic nuclei in the solar interior,
settle to thermal equilibrium with the solar core and annihilate to produce an
observable flux of neutrinos. When studying this process, the time it takes for a
gravitationally bound WIMP to reach thermal equilibrium is commonly neglected. I
explore the thermalization process and find that the assumption of instantaneous
thermalization breaks down only for some fine-tuned cases. I also present results
showing that self-interaction between WIMPs can significantly amplify the capture rate
and neutrino signal, within current limits to the WIMP self-interaction cross section.
Primary author
Mr
Axel Widmark
(Stockholm University)
