Search for secluded dark matter with 6 years of IceCube data
Christoph T\"onnis (for the IceCube Collaboration)

TL;DR
This study uses six years of IceCube data to search for dark matter annihilation signals from the Sun, focusing on models where dark matter interacts via a metastable mediator that escapes the Sun before decaying.
Contribution
It introduces a novel search for dark matter with mediators that escape the Sun, analyzing extensive IceCube data across a wide range of mediator lifetimes and dark matter masses.
Findings
No significant excess detected, setting new limits on dark matter annihilation.
Constraints placed on mediator lifetimes between 1 ms and 10 s.
Results improve previous bounds on dark matter models with mediators.
Abstract
The IceCube neutrino observatory--installed in the Antarctic ice--is the largest neutrino telescope to date. It consists of 5,160 photomultiplier-tubes spread among 86 vertical strings making a total detector volume of more than a cubic kilometer. IceCube detects neutrinos via Cherenkov light emitted by charged relativistic particles produced when a neutrino interacts in or near the detector. The detector is particularly sensitive to high-energy neutrinos of due to its size and photosensor spacing. In this analysis we search for dark matter that annihilates into a metastable mediator that subsequently decays into Standard Model particles. These models yield an enhanced high-energy neutrino flux from dark matter annihilation inside the Sun compared to models without a mediator. Neutrino signals that are produced directly inside the Sun are strongly attenuated at higher energies due to…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAstrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena · Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena · Neutrino Physics Research
