Improved limits on dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the 79-string IceCube detector and implications for supersymmetry

TL;DR

This paper introduces an improved likelihood method for analyzing neutrino telescope data, leading to stronger constraints on dark matter models, especially in supersymmetry, by re-analyzing IceCube data with explicit energy information.

Contribution

The paper develops a new event-level likelihood formalism and applies it to IceCube data, resulting in more stringent limits on dark matter interactions and excluding certain supersymmetric models.

Findings

Stronger limits on spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering.

First exclusion of some MSSM models based on IceCube data.

Public release of data and analysis code for broader use.

Abstract

We present an improved event-level likelihood formalism for including neutrino telescope data in global fits to new physics. We derive limits on spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering by employing the new formalism in a re-analysis of data from the 79-string IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in the Sun, including explicit energy information for each event. The new analysis excludes a number of models in the weak-scale minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) for the first time. This work is accompanied by the public release of the 79-string IceCube data, as well as an associated computer code for applying the new likelihood to arbitrary dark matter models.