- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Cosmic-ray cooling by dark matter in astrophysical jets

Dimitrios Kantzas1,2,*, Francesca Calore1,†, and Marco Chianese3,4,‡

  • 1LAPTh, CNRS, USMB, F-74940 Annecy, France
  • 2Center for Astrophysics and Space Science (CASS), New York University Abu Dhabi, PO Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
  • 3Scuola Superiore Meridionale, Via Mezzocannone 4, I-80138 Napoli, Italy
  • 4INFN—Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario Monte Sant’Angelo, I-80126 Napoli, Italy

  • *Contact author: dimitrios.kantzas@nyu.edu
  • †Contact author: calore@lapth.cnrs.fr
  • ‡Contact author: m.chianese@ssmeridionale.it
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 113, 023048 – Published 26 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fbfw-ptcw

Abstract

Astrophysical jets from powerful active galactic nuclei (AGN) have recently been proposed as promising probes of dark matter (DM) in the sub-GeV mass range. AGN launch relativistic jets that accelerate cosmic rays (CRs) to very high energies, which can then interact with their surroundings and produce multiwavelength (MW) emission spanning from radio frequencies to TeV γ rays. If DM consists of light particles, their interactions with CRs could lead to an additional cooling mechanism that modifies the expected MW emission. In this work, we analyze the MW spectrum of Markarian 421, a well-studied AGN, using a multizone leptonic jet model that includes the interactions between CR electrons and DM particles. For the first time, we account for the uncertainties in the astrophysical jet dynamics, which have been previously neglected when constraining the CR-DM interactions. By fitting simultaneously jet parameters and DM-electrons interactions, we use the MW data from Markarian 421 to set constraints on the DM-induced CR cooling. We obtain 5σ upper limit σDM−e≲1×10−34  cm2 for a DM mass of 1 MeV. We demonstrate that this is about a factor of 2–10 stronger than traditional approaches depending on DM mass. This improvement originates from having indeed considered the full multiwavelength emission from the source, instead if a simplified approach. Properly accounting for degeneracies between jet dynamics and DM interactions is also key to deriving robust constraints on DM interactions.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (102)

  1. G. Bertone, D. Hooper, and J. Silk, Particle dark matter: Evidence, candidates and constraints, Phys. Rep. 405, 279 (2005).
  2. G. Bertone and D. Hooper, History of dark matter, Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 045002 (2018).
  3. F. Kahlhoefer, Review of LHC dark matter searches, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 32, 1730006 (2017).
  4. N. Aghanim et al. (Planck Collaboration), Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters, Astron. Astrophys. 641, A6 (2020); 652, C4(E) (2021).
  5. J. Billard et al., Direct detection of dark matter—APPEC committee report*, Rep. Prog. Phys. 85, 056201 (2022).
  6. R. Alves Batista et al., EuCAPT white paper: Opportunities and challenges for theoretical astroparticle physics in the next decade, arXiv:2110.10074.
  7. S. Knapen, T. Lin, and K. M. Zurek, Light dark matter: Models and constraints, Phys. Rev. D 96, 115021 (2017).
  8. G. Angloher et al. (CRESST Collaboration), Results on light dark matter particles with a low-threshold CRESST-II detector, Eur. Phys. J. C 76, 25 (2016).
  9. T. Emken and C. Kouvaris, How blind are underground and surface detectors to strongly interacting dark matter?, Phys. Rev. D 97, 115047 (2018).
  10. G. Angloher et al. (CRESST Collaboration), Results on MeV-scale dark matter from a gram-scale cryogenic calorimeter operated above ground, Eur. Phys. J. C 77, 637 (2017).
  11. C. Kouvaris and J. Pradler, Probing sub-GeV dark matter with conventional detectors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 031803 (2017).
  12. M. J. Dolan, F. Kahlhoefer, and C. McCabe, Directly detecting sub-GeV dark matter with electrons from nuclear scattering, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 101801 (2018).
  13. T. Bringmann and M. Pospelov, Novel direct detection constraints on light dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 171801 (2019).
  14. Y. Ema, F. Sala, and R. Sato, Light dark matter at neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 181802 (2019).
  15. G. F. Giudice, D. Kim, J.-C. Park, and S. Shin, Inelastic boosted dark matter at direct detection experiments, Phys. Lett. B 780, 543 (2018).
  16. K. Bondarenko, A. Boyarsky, T. Bringmann, M. Hufnagel, K. Schmidt-Hoberg, and A. Sokolenko, Direct detection and complementary constraints for sub-GeV dark matter, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2019) 118.
  17. C. V. Cappiello and J. F. Beacom, Strong new limits on light dark matter from neutrino experiments, Phys. Rev. D 100, 103011 (2019); 104, 069901(E) (2021).
  18. J. Alvey, M. Campos, M. Fairbairn, and T. You, Detecting light dark matter via inelastic cosmic ray collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 261802 (2019).
  19. J. B. Dent, B. Dutta, J. L. Newstead, and I. M. Shoemaker, Bounds on cosmic ray-boosted dark matter in simplified models and its corresponding neutrino-floor, Phys. Rev. D 101, 116007 (2020).
  20. J. Berger, Y. Cui, M. Graham, L. Necib, G. Petrillo, D. Stocks, Y.-T. Tsai, and Y. Zhao, Prospects for detecting boosted dark matter in DUNE through hadronic interactions, Phys. Rev. D 103, 095012 (2021).
  21. W. Wang, L. Wu, J. M. Yang, H. Zhou, and B. Zhu, Cosmic ray boosted sub-GeV gravitationally interacting dark matter in direct detection, J. High Energy Phys. 12 (2020) 072; 02 (2021) 052(E).
  22. Y. Ema, F. Sala, and R. Sato, Neutrino experiments probe hadrophilic light dark matter, SciPost Phys. 10, 072 (2021).
  23. G. Guo, Y.-L. S. Tsai, and M.-R. Wu, Probing cosmic-ray accelerated light dark matter with IceCube, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 10 (2020) 049.
  24. Y. Jho, J.-C. Park, S. C. Park, and P.-Y. Tseng, Leptonic new force and cosmic-ray boosted dark matter for the XENON1T excess, Phys. Lett. B 811, 135863 (2020).
  25. J. B. Dent, B. Dutta, J. L. Newstead, I. M. Shoemaker, and N. T. Arellano, Present and future status of light dark matter models from cosmic-ray electron upscattering, Phys. Rev. D 103, 095015 (2021).
  26. J.-W. Wang, A. Granelli, and P. Ullio, Direct detection constraints on blazar-boosted dark matter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 221104 (2022).
  27. A. Granelli, P. Ullio, and J.-W. Wang, Blazar-boosted dark matter at Super-Kamiokande, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 07 (2022) 013.
  28. N. F. Bell, J. B. Dent, B. Dutta, S. Ghosh, J. Kumar, J. L. Newstead, and I. M. Shoemaker, Cosmic-ray upscattered inelastic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 104, 076020 (2021).
  29. J.-C. Feng, X.-W. Kang, C.-T. Lu, Y.-L. S. Tsai, and F.-S. Zhang, Revising inelastic dark matter direct detection by including the cosmic ray acceleration, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2021) 080.
  30. A. Das and M. Sen, Boosted dark matter from diffuse supernova neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 104, 075029 (2021).
  31. C. Xia, Y.-H. Xu, and Y.-F. Zhou, Production and attenuation of cosmic-ray boosted dark matter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 02 (2021) 028.
  32. C. Xia, Y.-H. Xu, and Y.-F. Zhou, Azimuthal asymmetry in cosmic-ray boosted dark matter flux, Phys. Rev. D 107, 055012 (2023).
  33. C. Kachulis et al. (Super-Kamiokande Collaboration), Search for boosted dark matter interacting with electrons in Super-Kamiokande, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 221301 (2018).
  34. M. Andriamirado et al. (PROSPECT Collaboration), Limits on sub-GeV dark matter from the PROSPECT reactor antineutrino experiment, Phys. Rev. D 104, 012009 (2021).
  35. X. Cui et al. (PandaX-II Collaboration), Search for cosmic-ray boosted sub-GeV dark matter at the PandaX-II experiment, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 171801 (2022).
  36. R. Xu et al. (CDEX Collaboration), Constraints on sub-GeV dark matter boosted by cosmic rays from the CDEX-10 experiment at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory, Phys. Rev. D 106, 052008 (2022).
  37. T. N. Maity and R. Laha, Cosmic-ray boosted dark matter in Xe-based direct detection experiments, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 117 (2024).
  38. V. De Romeri, A. Majumdar, D. K. Papoulias, and R. Srivastava, XENONnT and LUX-ZEPLIN constraints on DSNB-boosted dark matter, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 03 (2023) 028.
  39. C. Xia, C.-Y. Xing, and Y.-H. Xu, Boosted dark matter from centaurus A and its detection, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2024) 076.
  40. C. V. Cappiello, Q. Liu, G. Mohlabeng, and A. C. Vincent, Cosmic ray-boosted dark matter at IceCube, Phys. Rev. D 110, 095031 (2024).
  41. D. K. Ghosh, T. Gupta, M. Heikinheimo, K. Huitu, and S. Jeesun, Boosted dark matter driven by cosmic rays and diffuse supernova neutrinos, Phys. Rev. D 111, 063019 (2025).
  42. R. A. Gustafson, G. Herrera, M. Mukhopadhyay, K. Murase, and I. M. Shoemaker, Cosmic-ray boosted inelastic dark matter from neutrino-emitting active galactic nuclei, arXiv:2508.20984.
  43. L. Li, C.-T. Lu, A. K. Mishra, L. Su, and L. Wu, Enhanced cosmic-ray cooling in AGN from dark matter deep inelastic scattering, arXiv:2509.11906.
  44. Z. Chen, S.-F. Ge, J. Li, J. Pei, F. Yang, and C. Zhang, Dark parton shower effects for cosmic ray boosted dark matter, arXiv:2509.12007.
  45. S. Jeesun, Blazar boosted ALP and vector portal dark matter confronting light mediator searches, Phys. Rev. D 111, 103022 (2025).
  46. C. V. Cappiello, K. C. Y. Ng, and J. F. Beacom, Reverse direct detection: Cosmic ray scattering with light dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 99, 063004 (2019).
  47. G. Herrera and K. Murase, Probing light dark matter through cosmic-ray cooling in active galactic nuclei, Phys. Rev. D 110, L011701 (2024).
  48. R. A. Gustafson, G. Herrera, M. Mukhopadhyay, K. Murase, and I. M. Shoemaker, Cosmic-ray cooling in active galactic nuclei as a new probe of inelastic dark matter, Phys. Rev. D 111, L121303 (2025).
  49. A. K. Mishra, N. Liu, and C.-T. Lu, Probing gauged U(1) sub-GeV dark matter via cosmic ray cooling in active galactic nuclei, Phys. Dark Universe 49, 102050 (2025).
  50. M. Gorchtein, S. Profumo, and L. Ubaldi, Probing dark matter with AGN jets, Phys. Rev. D 82, 083514 (2010); 84, 069903(E) (2011).
  51. A. Ambrosone, M. Chianese, D. F. G. Fiorillo, A. Marinelli, and G. Miele, Starburst galactic nuclei as light dark matter laboratories, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 111003 (2023).
  52. K. Lu, Y.-L. S. Tsai, Q. Yuan, and L. Zhang, Inelastic scattering of dark matter with heavy cosmic rays, Res. Astron. Astrophys. 24, 065007 (2024).
  53. A. G. De Marchi, A. Granelli, J. Nava, and F. Sala, Did IceCube discover dark matter around blazars?, Phys. Rev. D 112, 043042 (2025).
  54. A. G. De Marchi, A. Granelli, J. Nava, and F. Sala, Diffuse astrophysical neutrinos from dark matter around blazars, Phys. Lett. B 871, 140015 (2025).
  55. G. Ghisellini, F. Tavecchio, L. Foschini, G. Ghirlanda, L. Maraschi, and A. Celotti, General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 402, 497 (2010).
  56. G. Ghisellini, F. Tavecchio, L. Maraschi, A. Celotti, and T. Sbarrato, The power of relativistic jets is larger than the luminosity of their accretion disks, Nature (London) 515, 376 (2014).
  57. L. Baldini et al. (Fermi-LAT Collaboration), Catalog of long-term transient sources in the first 10 yr of Fermi-LAT data, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 256, 13 (2021).
  58. M. Petropoulou, S. Dimitrakoudis, P. Padovani, A. Mastichiadis, and E. Resconi, Photohadronic origin of γ-ray BL Lac emission: Implications for IceCube neutrinos, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 448, 2412 (2015).
  59. M. Cerruti, A. Zech, C. Boisson, and S. Inoue, A hadronic origin for ultrahigh-frequency-peaked BL lac objects, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 448, 910 (2015).
  60. M. G. Aartsen et al. (IceCube Collaboration), Neutrino emission from the direction of the blazar TXS 0506+056 prior to the IceCube-170922A alert, Science 361, 147 (2018).
  61. F. Iocco, M. Pato, and G. Bertone, Evidence for dark matter in the inner Milky Way, Nat. Phys. 11, 245 (2015).
  62. M. Werhahn, C. Pfrommer, P. Girichidis, and G. Winner, Cosmic rays and non-thermal emission in simulated galaxies—II. γ-ray maps, spectra, and the far-infrared–γ-ray relation, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 505, 3295 (2021).
  63. P. Gondolo and J. Silk, Dark matter annihilation at the galactic center, Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1719 (1999).
  64. M. Lucchini, C. Ceccobello, S. Markoff, Y. Kini, A. Chhotray, R. M. T. Connors, P. Crumley, H. Falcke, D. Kantzas, and D. Maitra, Bhjet: A public multizone, steady state jet+thermal corona spectral model, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 517, 5853 (2022).
  65. B. Sbarufatti, A. Treves, and R. Falomo, Imaging redshifts of BL Lac objects, Astrophys. J. 635, 173 (2005).
  66. A. J. Barth, L. C. Ho, and W. L. W. Sargent, The black hole masses and host galaxies of BL Lac objects, Astrophys. J. 583, 134 (2003).
  67. B. Bartoli et al. (ARGO-YBJ Collaboration), 4.5 years of multi-wavelength observations of Mrk 421 during the ARGO-YBJ and Fermi common operation time, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 222, 6 (2016).
  68. S. Markoff, M. Nowak, S. Corbel, R. P. Fender, and H. Falcke, Exploring the role of jets in the radio / X-ray correlations of GX 339-4, Astron. Astrophys. 397, 645 (2003).
  69. S. Markoff, M. A. Nowak, and J. Wilms, Going with the flow: Can the base of jets subsume the role of compact accretion disk coronae?, Astrophys. J. 635, 1203 (2005).
  70. T. Hovatta, M. F. Aller, H. D. Aller, E. Clausen-Brown, D. C. Homan, Y. Y. Kovalev, M. L. Lister, A. B. Pushkarev, and T. Savolainen, MOJAVE: Monitoring of jets in active galactic nuclei with VLBA experiments. X. Parsec-scale Jet orientation variations and AGN activity, Astron. J. 147, 143 (2014).
  71. E. V. Kravchenko, I. N Pashchenko, D. C. Homan, Y. Y. Kovalev, M. L. Lister, A. B Pushkarev, E. Ros, and T. Savolainen, MOJAVE—XXII. Brightness temperature distributions and geometric profiles of relativistic jets, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 538, 2008 (2025).
  72. J. Jokipii, Rate of energy gain and maximum energy in diffusive shock acceleration, Astrophys. J. 313, 842 (1987).
  73. R. M. T. Connors, S. Markoff, M. A. Nowak, J. Neilsen, C. Ceccobello, P. Crumley, C. S. Froning, E. Gallo, and J. E. Nip, Mass-scaling as a method to constrain outflows and particle acceleration from low-luminosity accreting black holes, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 466, 4121 (2016).
  74. M. Lucchini, S. Markoff, P. Crumley, F. Krauß, and R. M. T. Connors, Breaking degeneracy in jet dynamics: Multi-epoch joint modelling of the BL Lac PKS 2155–304, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 482, 4798 (2019).
  75. G. R. Blumenthal and R. J. Gould, Bremsstrahlung, synchrotron radiation, and compton scattering of high-energy electrons traversing dilute gases, Rev. Mod. Phys. 42, 237 (1970).
  76. T. Lacroix, M. Karami, A. E. Broderick, J. Silk, and C. Boehm, Unique probe of dark matter in the core of M87 with the Event Horizon telescope, Phys. Rev. D 96, 063008 (2017).
  77. J. F. Navarro, C. S. Frenk, and S. D. M. White, The structure of cold dark matter halos, Astrophys. J. 462, 563 (1996).
  78. J. F. Navarro, C. S. Frenk, and S. D. M. White, A universal density profile from hierarchical clustering, Astrophys. J. 490, 493 (1997).
  79. A. Marasco, G. Cresci, L. Posti, F. Fraternali, F. Mannucci, A. Marconi, F. Belfiore, and S. M. Fall, A universal relation between the properties of supermassive black holes, galaxies, and dark matter haloes, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 507, 4274 (2021).
  80. M. Boudaud, T. Lacroix, M. Stref, J. Lavalle, and P. Salati, In-depth analysis of the clustering of dark matter particles around primordial black holes. Part I. Density profiles, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2021) 053.
  81. M. Asgari, A. J. Mead, and C. Heymans, The halo model for cosmology: A pedagogical review, Open J. Astrophys. 6 (2023).
  82. T. Ishiyama et al., The Uchuu simulations: Data release 1 and dark matter halo concentrations, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 506, 4210 (2021).
  83. T. Lacroix, C. Bœhm, and J. Silk, Ruling out thermal dark matter with a black hole induced spiky profile in the M87 galaxy, Phys. Rev. D 92, 043510 (2015).
  84. S. S. Wilks, The large-sample distribution of the likelihood ratio for testing composite hypotheses, Ann. Math. Stat. 9, 60 (1938).
  85. G. Ghisellini, L. Maraschi, and L. Dondi, Diagnostics of Inverse-Compton models for the γ-ray emission of 3C 279 and MKN 421., Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 120, 503 (1996).
  86. A. Mastichiadis and J. G. Kirk, Variability in the synchrotron self-compton model of blazar emission, Astron. Astrophys. 320, 19 (1997).
  87. F. Tavecchio, L. Maraschi, and G. Ghisellini, Constraints on the physical parameters of TeV blazars, Astrophys. J. 509, 608 (1998).
  88. F. Tavecchio, L. Maraschi, E. Pian, L. Chiappetti, A. Celotti, G. Fossati, G. Ghisellini, E. Palazzi, C. M. Raiteri, R. M. Sambruna, A. Treves, C. M. Urry, M. Villata, and A. Djannati-Ataï, Theoretical implications from the spectral evolution of Markarian 501 observed with BeppoSAX, Astrophys. J. 554, 725 (2001).
  89. A. K. Konopelko, A. Mastichiadis, J. G. Kirk, O. C. de Jager, and F. W. Stecker, Modeling the TeV gamma-ray spectra of two low redshift agns: Mkn 501 and Mkn 421, Astrophys. J. 597, 851 (2003).
  90. J. D. Finke, C. D. Dermer, and M. Böttcher, Synchrotron self-Compton analysis of TeV X-ray selected BL Lacertae objects, Astrophys. J. 686, 181 (2008).
  91. B. Bartoli et al. (ARGO-YBJ Collaboration), Long-term monitoring of the TeV emission from mrk 421 with the ARGO-YBJ experiment, Astrophys. J. 734, 110 (2011).
  92. K. Takahashi, M. Mori, K. Ichiki, S. Inoue, and H. Takami, Lower bounds on magnetic fields in intergalactic voids from Long-term GeV-TeV light curves of the blazar Mrk 421, Astrophys. J. Lett. 771, L42 (2013).
  93. M. Petropoulou, E. Lefa, S. Dimitrakoudis, and A. Mastichiadis, One-zone synchrotron self-Compton model for the core emission of centaurus A revisited, Astron. Astrophys. 562, A12 (2014).
  94. V. A. Acciari et al., Observation of Markarian 421 in TeV gamma rays over a 14-year time span, Astropart. Phys. 54, 1 (2014).
  95. A. A. Abdo et al., The study of TeV variability and the duty cycle of Mrk 421 from 3 yr of observations with the Milagro observatory, Astrophys. J. 782, 110 (2014).
  96. K. Nilsson et al., Long-term optical monitoring of TeV emitting blazars—I. Data analysis, Astron. Astrophys. 620, A185 (2018).
  97. H. An, M. Pospelov, J. Pradler, and A. Ritz, Directly detecting MeV-scale dark matter via solar reflection, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 141801 (2018); 121, 259903(E) (2018).
  98. S. Balaji, D. Cleaver, P. De la Torre Luque, and M. Michailidis, Dark matter in X-rays: Revised XMM-Newton limits and new constraints from erosita, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 11 (2025) 053.
  99. D. Kantzas et al., A new lepto-hadronic model applied to the first simultaneous multiwavelength data set for Cygnus X–1, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 500, 2112 (2020).
  100. D. Kantzas, S. Markoff, M. Lucchini, C. Ceccobello, and K. Chatterjee, Exploring the role of composition and mass loading on the properties of hadronic jets, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 520, 6017 (2023).
  101. A. Dekker, G. Herrera, and D. Kantzas, Axion-like particle limits from multi-messenger sources, arXiv:2506.14659.
  102. T. Di Matteo, R. A. C. Croft, V. Springel, and L. Hernquist, Black hole growth and activity in a lambda CDM universe, Astrophys. J. 593, 56 (2003).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, 023048– Published 26 January, 2026
  • Received 26 September 2025
  • Accepted 6 January 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation