Dips in the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background

Abstract

Scalar (fermion) dark matter with mass in the MeV range coupled to ordinary neutrinos and another fermion (scalar) is motivated by scenarios that establish a link between radiatively generated neutrino masses and the dark matter relic density. With such a coupling, cosmic supernova neutrinos, on their way to us, could resonantly interact with the background dark matter particles, giving rise to a dip in their redshift-integrated spectra. Current and future neutrino detectors, such as Super-Kamiokande, LENA and Hyper-Kamiokande, could be able to detect this distortion.