Neutrino propagation in the galactic dark matter halo

TL;DR

This paper investigates how hypothetical interactions between neutrinos and galactic dark matter could alter neutrino oscillation patterns, especially at PeV energies, with implications for dark matter properties and detection.

Contribution

It introduces a model for neutrino-dark matter interactions affecting oscillations and estimates the interaction strength needed for observable effects across different dark matter profiles.

Findings

Interaction effects are significant at PeV energies for certain dark matter densities.

Observable effects could indicate light or WIMP-like dark matter particles.

Results inform future neutrino observatories about potential dark matter signatures.

Abstract

Neutrino oscillations are a widely observed and well established phenomenon. It is also well known that deviations with respect to flavor conversion probabilities in vacuum arise due to neutrino interactions with matter. In this work, we analyze the impact of new interactions between neutrinos and the dark matter present in the Milky Way on the neutrino oscillation pattern. The dark matter-neutrino interaction is modeled by using an effective coupling proportional to the Fermi constant $G_F$ with no further restrictions on its flavor structure. For the galactic dark matter profile we consider an homogeneous distribution as well as several density profiles, estimating in all cases the size of the interaction required to get an observable effect at different neutrino energies. Our discussion is mainly focused in the PeV neutrino energy range, to be explored in observatories like IceCube and KM3NeT. The obtained results may be interpreted in terms of a light $\mathcal{O}$(sub-eV--keV) or WIMP-like dark matter particle or as a new interaction with a mediator of $\mathcal{O}$(sub-eV--keV) mass.