Prospective Sensitivity to Solar Dark Matter using the IceCube Upgrade

TL;DR

This paper projects the IceCube Upgrade's enhanced sensitivity to GeV-scale dark matter particles via neutrino detection from the Sun, aiming to improve indirect detection capabilities in the 3 GeV to 10 TeV mass range.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed sensitivity projections of the IceCube Upgrade for detecting solar dark matter annihilation signals in the 3 GeV to 500 GeV range.

Findings

IceCube Upgrade will significantly improve sensitivity to low-mass dark matter.

IceCube will become the most sensitive indirect detection experiment for certain mass ranges.

Projections cover dark matter masses from 3 GeV to 10 TeV.

Abstract

While astrophysical observations imply that 85% of the matter content is unaccounted for, the nature of this dark matter (DM) component remains unknown. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) - DM particles that interact at or below the weak interaction scale - could naturally explain this missing matter. These interactions with the Standard Model (SM) allow them to be gravitationally captured in celestial bodies like the Sun. Trapped DM in the solar core could subsequently annihilate, producing stable SM particles, of which only neutrinos can escape the Sun's dense interior. Therefore, an excess of neutrinos originating from the direction of the Sun would serve as evidence of DM. The IceCube Upgrade, a dense infill of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, will lower the energy threshold and improve sensitivity in the range from 1 to 500 GeV, thereby enhancing IceCube's ability to detect GeV-scale DM. In this contribution, I present projections of the IceCube Upgrade's sensitivity to the DM-proton scattering cross section for DM masses between 3 GeV and 500 GeV. These sensitivities position IceCube as the most sensitive indirect detection experiment for DM in the mass range from 3 GeV to 10 TeV.