Robust Limits from Upcoming Neutrino Telescopes and Implications on Minimal Dark Matter Models

TL;DR

Upcoming neutrino telescopes will significantly improve constraints on dark matter annihilation signals, especially using angular power spectrum analysis, and will test minimal dark matter models with enhanced sensitivity and reduced profile dependence.

Contribution

This paper introduces an angular power spectrum analysis for neutrino telescopes to better constrain dark matter signals and evaluates the potential of next-generation detectors to probe minimal dark matter models.

Findings

Projected sensitivity improves by over an order of magnitude.

Analysis is less sensitive to dark matter density profile assumptions.

Neutrino telescopes can explore significant parameter space of minimal models.

Abstract

Experimental developments in neutrino telescopes are drastically improving their ability to constrain the annihilation cross-section of dark matter. In this paper, we employ an angular power spectrum analysis method to probe the galactic and extra-galactic dark matter signals with neutrino telescopes. We first derive projections for a next generation of neutrino telescope that is inspired by KM3NeT. We emphasise that such analysis is much less sensitive to the choice of dark matter density profile. Remarkably, the projected sensitivity is improved by more than an order of magnitude with respect to the existing limits obtained by assuming the Burkert dark matter density profile describing the galactic halo. Second, we analyse minimal extensions to the Standard Model that will be maximally probed by the next generation of neutrino telescopes. As benchmark scenarios, we consider Dirac dark matter in $s$- and $t$-channel models with vector and scalar mediators. We follow a global approach by examining all relevant complementary experimental constraints. We find that neutrino telescopes will be able to competitively probe significant portions of parameter space. Interestingly, the anomaly-free $L_{\mu}-L_{\tau}$ model can potentially be explored in regions where the relic abundance is achieved through freeze-out mechanism.