High-Energy Neutrinos From Millicharged Dark Matter Annihilation in the Sun

TL;DR

This paper investigates how millicharged dark matter particles can be captured by the Sun, leading to neutrino production, and uses IceCube data to set new limits on their properties, exploring previously untested parameter space.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on millicharged dark matter properties by analyzing neutrino signals from the Sun, extending the parameter space beyond previous limits.

Findings

Excluded new parameter space for dark matter mass and charge.

Set limits on the fractional abundance of millicharged dark matter.

Demonstrated the potential of neutrino observatories to probe dark matter properties.

Abstract

Millicharged dark matter particles can be efficiently captured by the Sun, where they annihilate into tau leptons, leading to the production of high-energy neutrinos. In contrast to the Earth, the high temperature of the Sun suppresses the fraction of millicharged particles that are bound to nuclei, allowing for potentially high annihilation rates. We recast existing constraints from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and use this information to place new limits on the fraction of the dark matter that is millicharged. This analysis excludes previously unexplored parameter space for masses of $m_\chi \sim (5-100) \ \text{GeV}$, charges of $q_\chi \sim 10^{-3}-10^{-2}$, and fractional abundances as small as $f_{_\text{DM}} \sim 10^{-5}$.