Probing Dark Matter-Electron Scattering with the Central Molecular Zone
Abstract
The Central Molecular Zone, a dense and gas-rich region surrounding the Galactic Center, hosts numerous dense molecular gas cores that provide unique environments to probe dark matter interactions. Among these, the IRS 13E3 cluster is one of the closest to the Galactic Center and one of the most extensively studied. We show that dark matter-electron scattering can substantially ionize molecular hydrogen (H2) in the IRS 13E3 core, contributing to the ionization rate in conjunction with standard cosmic rays. Using the ionization rate inferred from H3+ observations of the central parsecs, we derive constraints on heavy and ultralight dark photon mediators, a heavy leptophilic mediator, and electric dipole moment interactions in the strongly interacting regime, where terrestrial searches are limited by the overburden problem. Our results highlight the potential of dense molecular cores near the Galactic Center as promising targets for constraining dark matter interactions with future observations.
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BibTeX
@misc{nguyen2026probing,
title = {{Probing Dark Matter-Electron Scattering with the Central Molecular Zone}},
author = {Thong T. Q. Nguyen and Shyam Balaji and Carlos Blanco and Pedro De la Torre Luque},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.07008},
eprint = {2611.07008},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07008},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Probing Dark Matter-Electron Scattering with the Central Molecular Zone
AU - Thong T. Q. Nguyen
AU - Shyam Balaji
AU - Carlos Blanco
AU - Pedro De la Torre Luque
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.07008
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07008
AB - The Central Molecular Zone, a dense and gas-rich region surrounding the Galactic Center, hosts numerous dense molecular gas cores that provide unique environments to probe dark matter interactions. Among these, the IRS 13E3 cluster is one of the closest to the Galactic Center and one of the most extensively studied. We show that dark matter-electron scattering can substantially ionize molecular hydrogen (H_2) in the IRS 13E3 core, contributing to the ionization rate in conjunction with standard cosmic rays. Using the ionization rate inferred from H_3^+ observations of the central parsecs, we derive constraints on heavy and ultralight dark photon mediators, a heavy leptophilic mediator, and electric dipole moment interactions in the strongly interacting regime, where terrestrial searches are limited by the overburden problem. Our results highlight the potential of dense molecular cores near the Galactic Center as promising targets for constraining dark matter interactions with future observations.
ER -