Are IceCube neutrinos unveiling PeV-scale decaying dark matter?
- Instituto de Fisica Gleb Wataghin - UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, 13083-859 (Brazil)
Recent observations by IceCube, notably two PeV cascades accompanied by events at energies ∼ (30–400) TeV, are clearly in excess over atmospheric background fluxes and beg for an astroparticle physics explanation. Although some models of astrophysical accelerators can account for the observations within current statistics, intriguing features in the energy and possibly angular distributions of the events make worth exploring alternatives. Here, we entertain the possibility of interpreting the data with a few PeV mass scale decaying dark matter, with lifetime of the order of 10{sup 27} s. We discuss generic signatures of this scenario, including its unique energy spectrum distortion with respect to the benchmark E{sub ν}{sup −2} expectation for astrophysical sources, as well as peculiar anisotropies. A direct comparison with the data show a good match with the above-mentioned features. We further discuss possible future checks of this scenario.
- OSTI ID:
- 22369902
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2013, Issue 11; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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