Constraining Dark Matter Neutrino Interaction with High Energy Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper uses high-energy neutrino data from IceCube to place new constraints on dark matter-neutrino interactions, especially for scalar dark matter with scalar mediators, surpassing some cosmological limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel likelihood-based method to constrain dark matter-neutrino interactions using high-energy neutrino data, focusing on scalar dark matter models.

Findings

Constraints on scalar DM-neutrino coupling strength

Energy-dependent cross section improves bounds

Potential to surpass cosmological constraints

Abstract

We employ data from the recently observed high-energy neutrino events at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to constrain interactions between the dark matter (DM) in the Milky Way and the neutrino sector. We construct an extended un-binned likelihood in order to explore the parameter space of allowed interactions. We present results in the specific case of a scalar DM candidate interacting via a scalar mediator, and show that due to the energy dependence of the interaction cross section, this approach can constrain the coupling more strongly than traditional cosmological probes for some regions of the parameter space.