The Sensitivity of the IceCube Neutrino Detector to Dark Matter Annihilating in Dwarf Galaxies

Abstract

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 (ACTs) (HESS, 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 ten 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_X > 7 TeV) or relatively light (m_X < 200 GeV) dark matter particles which annihilate primarily to mu+mu-. If dark matter particles annihilate primarily to tau+tau-, IceCube will have superior sensitivity only for dark matter particle masses below the 200 GeV threshold of current ACTs. 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.

7 pages, 3 figures. v2: references added and minor revisions. v3: as published in PRD.

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Cited by in corpus (16)

• Dark Matter Searches with Astroparticle Data
• IceCube Search for Dark Matter Annihilation in nearby Galaxies and Galaxy Clusters
• Indirect Dark Matter Detection Limits from the Ultra-Faint Milky Way Satellite Segue 1
• Dark Matter Indirect Signatures
• Neutrinos in IceCube/KM3NeT as probes of Dark Matter Substructures in Galaxy Clusters
• A tale of dark matter capture, sub-dominant WIMPs, and neutrino observatories
• Neutrino signals from ultracompact minihalos and constraints on the primordial curvature perturbation
• Gamma rays and neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in galaxy clusters
• Fermi/LAT observations of Dwarf Galaxies highly constrain a Dark Matter Interpretation of Excess Positrons seen in AMS-02, HEAT, and PAMELA
• Black Holes in our Galactic Halo: Compatibility with FGST and PAMELA Data and Constraints on the First Stars
• Future sensitivity of neutrino telescopes to dark matter annihilations from the cosmic diffuse neutrino signal
• Isotropic extragalactic flux from dark matter annihilations: lessons from interacting dark matter scenarios
• Searching for dark-matter induced neutrino signals in dwarf spheroidal galaxies using 10 years of IceCube public data
• Constraints on the primordial power spectrum of small scales using the neutrino signals from the dark matter decay
• Constraints on the ultracompact minihalos using neutrino signals from the gravitino dark matter decay
• Tau neutrinos from ultracompact dark matter minihalos and constraints on the primordial curvature perturbations