Sterile neutrinos and indirect dark matter searches in IceCube

TL;DR

This paper explores how light sterile neutrinos can influence high-energy neutrino signals from dark matter annihilation in the Sun, potentially affecting IceCube's detection limits and offering new ways to constrain sterile neutrino models.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of sterile neutrinos on neutrino propagation from dark matter annihilation and proposes using IceCube data to constrain sterile neutrino properties.

Findings

Sterile neutrinos can cause resonant flavor conversions affecting IceCube signals.

Sterile neutrinos may weaken existing IceCube limits on dark matter in the Sun.

Future measurements can use IceCube to constrain sterile neutrino models.

Abstract

If light sterile neutrinos exist and mix with the active neutrino flavors, this mixing will affect the propagation of high-energy neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Sun. In particular, new Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein resonances can occur, leading to almost complete conversion of some active neutrino flavors into sterile states. We demonstrate how this can weaken IceCube limits on neutrino capture and annihilation in the Sun and how potential future conflicts between IceCube constraints and direct detection or collider data might be resolved by invoking sterile neutrinos. We also point out that, if the dark matter--nucleon scattering cross section and the allowed annihilation channels are precisely measured in direct detection and collider experiments in the future, IceCube can be used to constrain sterile neutrino models using neutrinos from the dark matter annihilation.