Search for secluded dark matter with 6 years of IceCube data

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 interactions with the solar plasma. In the models considered here, the mediator can escape the Sun before producing any neutrinos, thereby avoiding attenuation. We present the results of an analysis of six years of IceCube data looking for dark matter in the Sun. We consider mediator lifetimes between 1 ms to 10 s and dark matter masses between 200 GeV and 75 TeV.