Search for the rare interactions of neutrinos from distant point sources with IceCube Neutrino Telescope

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential for IceCube to detect rare neutrino-dark matter interactions during neutrinos' journey from distant astrophysical sources, focusing on spectral suppressions caused by such interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis framework for searching neutrino-dark matter interactions using IceCube data, emphasizing sensitivity to sub-GeV dark matter masses and specific mediator scenarios.

Findings

Sensitivity estimates for neutrino-dark matter interactions are provided.

Potential spectral suppression signatures are characterized.

Analysis demonstrates feasibility of detecting such rare interactions.

Abstract

The recent discovery and evidence of neutrino signals from distant sources, TXS 0506+056 and NGC 1068 respectively, provide opportunities to search for rare interactions of neutrinos that they might encounter on their paths. One potential scenario of interest is the interaction between neutrinos and dark matter, which is invisible and expected to be abundantly spread over the Universe. Various astrophysical observations have implied the existence of dark matter. When high-energy neutrinos from extragalactic sources interact with dark matter during their propagation, their spectra might show suppressions at specific energy ranges, where such interactions occur. These attenuation signatures from the interaction might be measurable on Earth with large neutrino telescopes such as the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This analysis is focused on the search for rare interactions of high-energy neutrinos from the IceCube-identified astrophysical neutrino sources with dark matter in sub-GeV masses and several benchmark mediator cases using the upgoing track-like events. In this poster, sensitivity studies about the interaction of neutrinos and dark matter are presented.