Helioseismology as a new constraint on supersymmetric dark matter

The presence of dark matter in the solar neighbourhood can be tested in the framework of stellar evolution theory by using the new results of helioseismology. If weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) accumulate in the centre of the Sun, they can provide an additional mechanism for transferring energy from the solar core. The presence of these particles produces a change in the local luminosity of the Sun of the order of 0.1 per cent, which is now within the reach of seismic solar experiments. We find that typical WIMPs with a mass of 60 GeV, annihilation cross-section of 10−32 cm3 s−1 and scalar scattering interaction between 10−36 cm2 and 10−41 cm2, the lower end of this range being that suggested by the DAMA direct detection experiment, modify the radial profile of the square of the sound speed in the solar core by ∼0.1 per cent. This level of change is strongly constrained by the most recent helioseismological results. Significantly more massive WIMPs have a much smaller effect on the solar core temperature profile. However future helioseismological experiments have the potential to explore most, if not all, of the WIMP parameter space accessible to current and planned direct detection experiments.