Dark matter at DeepCore and IceCube

Journal Article · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.83.055012· OSTI ID:21537452

Barger, V ^[1]; Gao, Y ^[2]; Marfatia, D ^[3]

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1. Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403 (United States)
3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045 (United States)

With the augmentation of IceCube by DeepCore, the prospect for detecting dark matter annihilation in the Sun is much improved. To complement this experimental development, we provide a thorough template analysis of the particle physics issues that are necessary to precisely interpret the data. Our study is about nitty-gritty and is intended as a framework for detailed work on a variety of dark matter candidates. To accurately predict the source neutrino spectrum, we account for spin-correlations of the final state particles and the helicity-dependence of their decays, and absorption effects at production. We fully treat the propagation of neutrinos through the Sun, including neutrino oscillations, energy losses and tau regeneration. We simulate the survival probability of muons produced in the Earth by using the Muon Monte Carlo program, reproduce the published IceCube effective area, and update the parameters in the differential equation that approximates muon energy losses. To evaluate the zenith-angle dependent atmospheric background event rate, we track the Sun and determine the time it spends at each zenith-angle. Throughout, we employ neutralino dark matter as our example.

• OSTI ID: 21537452
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 83; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ABSORPTION
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
ANNIHILATION
APPROXIMATIONS
CALCULATION METHODS
CORRELATIONS
DECAY
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EQUATIONS
FERMIONS
HELICITY
INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
MONTE CARLO METHOD
MUONS
NEUTRINO OSCILLATION
NEUTRINOS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PROBABILITY
REGENERATION
SORPTION
SPECTRA
SPIN
STARS
SUN