Part of Focus on Dark Matter and Particle Physics

 

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Abstract

We revisit the prospects for IceCube and similar kilometer-scale telescopes to detect neutrinos produced by the annihilation of weakly interacting massive dark matter particles (WIMPs) in the Sun. We emphasize that the astrophysics of the problem is understood; models can be observed or, alternatively, ruled out. In searching for a WIMP with spin-independent interactions with ordinary matter, IceCube is only competitive with direct detection experiments if the WIMP mass is sufficiently large. For spin-dependent interactions IceCube already has improved the best limits on spin-dependent WIMP cross sections by two orders of magnitude. This is largely due to the fact that models with significant spin-dependent couplings to protons are the least constrained and, at the same time, the most promising because of the efficient capture of WIMPs in the Sun. We identify models where dark matter particles are beyond the reach of any planned direct detection experiments while being within reach of neutrino telescopes. In summary, we find that, even when contemplating recent direct detection results, neutrino telescopes have the opportunity to play an important as well as complementary role in the search for particle dark matter.

PACS

95.55.Vj Neutrino, muon, pion, and other elementary particle detectors; cosmic ray detectors

29.40.Ka Cherenkov detectors

98.70.Sa Cosmic rays (including sources, origin, acceleration, and interactions)

95.30.Cq Elementary particle processes

Subjects

Accelerators, beams and electromagnetism

Nuclear physics

Instrumentation and measurement

Particle physics and field theory

Astrophysics and astroparticles

Dates

Issue 10 (October 2009)

Received 2 February 2009

Published 16 October 2009