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Solar wind bremsstrahlung off dark matter in our solar system at three wavelengths

Gilles Couture

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075037 – Published 17 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/39ch-65sj

Abstract

Using Monte Carlo techniques, we calculate the bremsstrahlung spectrum that protons and electrons in the solar wind would produce when encountering dark matter (DM) particles within the solar system. We consider two types of interactions for the DM: one where a spin-1/2 neutral DM particle interacts with matter through the exchange of a lighter neutral scalar DM particle and one where a scalar neutral DM particle interacts directly with the matter particle. We consider three wavelengths: 21 cm, 3 mm, and 12  μ. To estimate the significance of the signal, we compare our results to experimental results from ARCADE2 and PLANCK and consider the sensitivities of three telescopes: VLA, ALMA, and KECK. We find that in order to produce an observable signal in the first scenario the neutral fermion must have a mass comparable to the solar wind particle while the exchanged particle must have a mass typically few×105 smaller. The scalar direct interaction, however, appears beyond reach for any reasonable coupling.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 075037– Published 17 October, 2025
  • Received 23 December 2024
  • Accepted 23 September 2025
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