A Strong Test of the Dark Matter Origin of the 1.4 TeV DAMPE Signal Using IceCube Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper tests the dark matter explanation for the 1.4 TeV DAMPE excess using IceCube neutrino data, showing that non-detections can strongly exclude such models within five to ten years.

Contribution

It provides a novel method to test dark matter models explaining the DAMPE excess through neutrino observations with IceCube.

Findings

IceCube data can decisively test dark matter models explaining the DAMPE excess.

Non-detection at IceCube can exclude these models at 5σ significance.

Results depend on source extension and observation duration.

Abstract

A tentative excess in the electron spectrum at 1.4 TeV was recently reported by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). A non-astrophysical scenario in which dark matter particles annihilate or decay in a local clump has been invoked to explain the excess. If $e^\pm$ annihilation channels in the final states are mediated by left-handed leptons as a component in the $SU(2)_L$ doublet, neutrinos with similar energies should have been simultaneously produced. We demonstrate that generic dark matter models can be decisively tested by the existing IceCube data. In case of a non-detection, such models would be excluded at the $5\sigma$ level by the five-year data for a point-like source and by the ten-year data for an extended source of dark matter particles with left-handed leptons.