Dark Matter Annihilation to Neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper reviews dark matter annihilation into neutrinos across a wide mass range, updates experimental constraints, and forecasts sensitivities of future neutrino detectors, emphasizing the importance of directional data for improved limits.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive review and updated constraints on dark matter annihilation into neutrinos over a broad mass spectrum, including projections for upcoming experiments.

Findings

Constraints on annihilation cross section vary from 2.5×10⁻²⁶ to 10⁻¹⁷ cm³/s across the mass range.

Directional and energy-resolved data significantly improve detection constraints.

Forecasts indicate future experiments will enhance sensitivity to dark matter-neutrino interactions.

Abstract

We review the annihilation of dark matter into neutrinos over a range of dark matter masses from MeV$/c^2$ to ZeV$/c^2$. Thermally-produced models of dark matter are expected to self-annihilate to standard model products. As no such signal has yet been detected, we turn to neutrino detectors to constrain the ``most invisible channel.'' We review the experimental techniques that are used to detect neutrinos, and revisit the expected contributions to the neutrino flux at current and upcoming neutrino experiments. We place updated constraints on the dark matter self-annhilation cross section to neutrinos $\langle \sigma v \rangle$ using the most recently available data, and forecast the sensitivity of upcoming experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande, DUNE, and IceCube Gen-2. Where possible, limits and projections are scaled to a single set of dark matter halo parameters for consistent comparison. We consider Galactic and extragalactic signals of $s$, $p$, and $d$-wave annihilation processes directly into neutrino pairs, yielding constraints that range from $\langle \sigma v \rangle \sim 2.5\times10^{-26}~{\rm cm}^3 {\rm s}^{-1}$ at 30 MeV$/c^2$ to $10^{-17}~{\rm cm}^3{\rm s}^{-1}$ at 10$^{11}$ GeV$/c^2$. Experiments that report directional and energy information of their events provide much stronger constraints, outlining the importance of making such data public.