Resonant Scattering of Boosted Dark Matter

Abstract

We develop a simulation within GENIE of the excitation of baryonic resonances by boosted dark matter. This work completes the simulation of all scattering modes for dark matter entering a detector at relativistic speeds. At some boosts, resonant scattering can contribute over 30% to the scattering rate. This channel offers a potentially powerful probe of the isospin structure of dark matter interactions via the relative prominence of the isospin-changing $\Delta$ resonance. We study the estimated sensitivity of large volume detectors such as DUNE, Hyper-Kamiokande, and JUNO to all dark matter scattering modes and demonstrate the expected improvement in sensitivity when resonant scattering is included.