Dark Matter Neutrino Scattering in the Galactic Center with IceCube

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential interaction between dark matter and high-energy neutrinos in the Galactic Centre, using IceCube data to look for flux attenuation indicative of such scattering.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of IceCube data to constrain dark matter-neutrino interactions through flux suppression in the Galactic Centre.

Findings

No significant neutrino flux suppression observed.

Constraints placed on dark matter-neutrino scattering cross section.

Results compared with cosmological and large-scale structure data.

Abstract

While there is evidence for the existence of dark matter, its properties have yet to be discovered. Simultaneously, the nature of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos detected by IceCube remains unresolved. If dark matter and neutrinos are coupled to each other, they may exhibit a non-zero elastic scattering cross section. Such an interaction between an isotropic extragalactic neutrino flux and dark matter would be concentrated in the Galactic Centre, where the dark matter column density is greatest. This scattering would attenuate the flux of high-energy neutrinos, which could be observed in IceCube. Using the seven-year Medium Energy Starting Events sample, we perform an unbinned likelihood analysis, searching for a signal based on a possible DM-neutrino interaction scenario. We search for a suppression of the high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux in the direction of the Galactic Centre, and compare these constraints to complementary low-energy information from large scale structure surveys and the cosmic microwave background.