Does dark matter affect the solar neutrino flux?

Abstract

An observed deficit of high-energy (⁸B) solar neutrinos¹ and the galactic dark-mass problem² have both been explained in terms of hypothetical particles (ref. 3 and L. M. Krauss, unpublished work): ‘cosmions’ must have masses m_c in the range 5–50 AMU, a mean elastic scattering cross-section per hydrogen nucleus in the Sun of <σ>_s∼4xl0⁻³⁶cm², local mass density ρ∼ 1 AMU cm⁻³, and cosmological velocity ν∼ 10⁻³c. Accumulated in the Sun, they enhance its thermal conductivity so as to yield the measured solar luminosity with a lower central temperature than in standard models. Here we show that such particles, should they exist, could be detected and studied in the laboratory by bolometric procedures proposed originally by Cabrera et al.⁴ for the purpose of measuring solar neutrinos. The event rates are so large that a definitive test of this cosmion hypothesis can be made, even with a relatively small bolometric detector.