Constraints on Dark Matter from the Moon

Understand

New and complimentary constraints are placed on the spin-independent interactions of dark matter with baryonic matter.

• Similar to the Earth and other planets, the Moon does not have any major internal heat source.
• We derive constraints by comparing the rate of energy deposit by dark matter annihilations in the Moon to 12 mW/m$^2$ as measured by the Apollo mission.
• For light dark matter of mass $\mathcal{O}(10)$ GeV, we also examine the possibility of dark matter annihilations in the Moon limb.