First Searches for Dark Matter with the KM3NeT Neutrino Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper reports on the first searches for dark matter using the KM3NeT neutrino telescopes, setting limits on dark matter annihilation and scattering cross sections based on data from the Mediterranean Sea detectors.

Contribution

It presents the initial dark matter search results with KM3NeT's ARCA and ORCA detectors, covering a wide mass range and providing new constraints on dark matter properties.

Findings

No significant excess detected in either Galactic Centre or Sun analyses.

Limits set on dark matter annihilation cross sections for multiple channels.

Constraints provided on dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections.

Abstract

Indirect dark matter detection methods are used to observe the products of dark matter annihilations or decays originating from astrophysical objects where large amounts of dark matter are thought to accumulate. With neutrino telescopes, an excess of neutrinos is searched for in nearby dark matter reservoirs, such as the Sun and the Galactic Centre, which could potentially produce a sizeable flux of Standard Model particles. The KM3NeT infrastructure, currently under construction, comprises the ARCA and ORCA undersea \v{C}erenkov neutrino detectors located at two different sites in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore of Italy and France, respectively. The two detector configurations are optimised for the detection of neutrinos of different energies, enabling the search for dark matter particles with masses ranging from a few GeV/c$^2$ to hundreds of TeV/c$^2$. In this work, searches for dark matter annihilations in the Galactic Centre and the Sun with data samples taken with the first configurations of both detectors are presented. No significant excess over the expected background was found in either of the two analyses. Limits on the velocity-averaged self-annihilation cross section of dark matter particles are computed for five different primary annihilation channels in the Galactic Centre. For the Sun, limits on the spin-dependent and spin-independent scattering cross sections of dark matter with nucleons are given for three annihilation channels.