The Sun catches dark matter by scattering off neutrons, giving stronger limits than Earth detectors.

Scientists look for invisible dark matter using the Sun as a giant trap. Dark matter particles from space can crash into atoms inside the Sun, lose speed, and get stuck. Once trapped, they can collide with each other and destroy themselves, producing detectable light called gamma rays or tiny particles called neutrinos. Past studies looked at how dark matter bounces off protons and electrons, but they overlooked how it hits neutrons. The researchers calculated how often dark matter scatters off neutrons in the Sun. They compared their predictions with current and future detector data. They found that the Sun sets better limits on dark matter than standard Earth-based detectors for several models, even reaching past normal background noise limits.

Why it matters

Dark matter particles constantly pass through the Sun. Some scatter off rare neutron-rich isotopes inside it and get trapped, then annihilate. This paper shows the Sun's invisible trap catches dark matter better than the best Earth-based experiments for certain dark matter types. That tells us where to look and what kinds of dark matter to rule out.

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