The AMANDA Neutrino Telescope and the Indirect Search for Dark Matter

TL;DR

The paper discusses the AMANDA neutrino telescope's capabilities in detecting high-energy neutrinos and its potential to indirectly search for dark matter particles through their annihilation signals.

Contribution

It introduces the AMANDA detector as a pioneering high-energy neutrino telescope capable of probing dark matter annihilation in the halo.

Findings

Effective area of 10^4 m^2

Threshold energy of ~50 GeV

Pointing accuracy of 2.5 degrees

Abstract

With an effective telescope area of order 10^4 m^2, a threshold of ~50 GeV and a pointing accuracy of 2.5 degrees, the AMANDA detector represents the first of a new generation of high energy neutrino telescopes, reaching a scale envisaged over 25 years ago. We describe its performance, focussing on the capability to detect halo dark matter particles via their annihilation into neutrinos.