Search for Dark Matter from the Galactic Halo with IceCube

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for neutrinos from dark matter annihilations in the Galactic halo using the IceCube detector, providing constraints on dark matter properties with early data.

Contribution

First search for dark matter self-annihilation signals in the Galactic halo with IceCube's 22-string configuration, setting initial constraints.

Findings

Constrained dark matter self-annihilation cross-section.

Demonstrated feasibility of detecting halo neutrinos with partial IceCube.

Provided groundwork for future, more sensitive analyses.

Abstract

Neutrinos produced in dark matter self-annihilations in the Galactic halo might be detectable by IceCube. We present a search for such a signal using the IceCube detector in the 22-string configuration. We first evaluate the sensitivity before presenting the result based on the collected data. We find that even with the partially instrumented detector and a small dataset, we are able to meaningfully constrain the dark matter self-annihilation cross-section. Future analyses, based on data sets from a larger detector and the inclusion of the Galactic center, are expected to considerably improve these results.