Elastic Scattering of Cosmic Ray Boosted Dark Matter in the NEWSdm Emulsion Detector, Model and Constraints

We present new calculation results for the NEWSdm emulsion detector response to dark matter (DM) particles accelerated in elastic interactions with cosmic-ray nuclei (cosmic-ray-accelerated dark matter or CRDM) for different thresholds. The NEWSdm detector, located in the Gran Sasso laboratory (INFN, Italy), consists of 10 kg of NIT (nano imaging tracker) emulsion films with grain sizes of several tens of nanometers. It has been shown that for such a mass of nanoemulsion, in the DM mass range from 1 keV/c $${}^{2}$$ to 1 GeV/c $${}^{2}$$ with cross-section values $$\sigma_{\chi p}$$ ranging from $$10^{-30}$$ to $$10^{-28}$$ cm $${}^{2}$$ , it is possible to obtain new constraints on DM properties. Using the micrOMEGAs code, the parameter space of the light dark matter model ( $$Z^{\prime}$$ portal) was determined which does not contradict the cosmological constraints and leads to the considered interaction cross sections $$\sigma_{\chi p}$$ .