Superheavy dark matter and IceCube neutrino signals:bounds on decaying dark matter

TL;DR

This paper uses IceCube neutrino data to set new lower bounds on the lifetime of superheavy dark matter particles above 100 TeV, and discusses a potential signal around a PeV energy.

Contribution

It provides the strongest lower bounds on superheavy dark matter lifetime from IceCube data and suggests a possible dark matter signal at PeV energies.

Findings

Lower bound on dark matter lifetime exceeds 10^{28} seconds for masses above 100 TeV.

An excess around a PeV energy could indicate dark matter decay signals.

Further confirmation and dedicated searches are needed for the PeV excess.

Abstract

Superheavy dark matter may show its presence in high energy neutrino signals detected on earth. From the latest results of IceCube, we could set the strongest lower bound on the lifetime of dark matter beyond 100 TeV around $10^{28} {\rm sec}$. The excess around a PeV is noticed and may be interpreted as the first signal of DM even though further confirmation and dedicated searches are invited.