Sensitivity of the IceCube neutrino detector to dark matter annihilating in dwarf galaxies

Journal Article · Thu Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.083506· OSTI ID:21409563

Sandick, Pearl ^[1]; Spolyar, Douglas ^[2]; Buckley, Matthew ^[3]; Freese, Katherine ^[4]; Hooper, Dan ^[2]

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1. Theory Group and Texas Cosmology Center, University of Texas at Austin, Texas 78712 (United States)
2. Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510 (United States)
3. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
4. Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 (United States)

In this paper, we compare the relative sensitivities of gamma-ray and neutrino observations to the dark matter annihilation cross section in leptophilic models such as have been designed to explain PAMELA data. We investigate whether the high energy neutrino telescope IceCube will be competitive with current and upcoming searches by gamma-ray telescopes, such as the Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes (H.E.S.S., VERITAS, and MAGIC), or the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, in detecting or constraining dark matter particles annihilating in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We find that after 10 years of observation of the most promising nearby dwarfs, IceCube will have sensitivity comparable to the current sensitivity of gamma-ray telescopes only for very heavy (m{sub X} > or approx. 7 TeV) or relatively light (m{sub X} < or approx. 200 GeV) dark matter particles which annihilate primarily to {mu}{sup +{mu}-}. If dark matter particles annihilate primarily to {tau}{sup +{tau}-}, IceCube will have superior sensitivity only for dark matter particle masses below the 200 GeV threshold of current Atmospheric Cerenkov Telescopes. If dark matter annihilations proceed directly to neutrino-antineutrino pairs a substantial fraction of the time, IceCube will be competitive with gamma-ray telescopes for a much wider range of dark matter masses. K. F. would like to thank the Aspen Center for Physics and the Texas Cosmology Center, and P. S. would like to thank MCTP.

• OSTI ID: 21409563
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.083506; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANNIHILATION
ANTINEUTRINOS
CHERENKOV COUNTERS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COSMOLOGY
CROSS SECTIONS
GALAXIES
GAMMA RADIATION
GEV RANGE 100-1000
MASS
MUONS MINUS
MUONS PLUS
NEUTRINO DETECTION
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
SENSITIVITY
SIMULATION
SPACE
TELESCOPES
TEV RANGE 01-10
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
DETECTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
EVALUATION
FERMIONS
GEV RANGE
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MUONS
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
RADIATION DETECTION
RADIATION DETECTORS
RADIATIONS
TEV RANGE