4.6 Article

The direct detection of boosted dark matter at high energies and PeV events at IceCube

Journal

Publisher

IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2015/03/027

Keywords

dark matter theory; neutrino detectors; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos

Funding

  1. Fermi lab
  2. CETUP (Center for Theoretical Underground Physics and Related Areas)
  3. XII Plan DAE Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics Grant
  4. US Department of Energy [DE-FG02-04ER41298, DE- FG02-13ER41976]

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We study the possibility of detecting dark matter directly via a small but energetic component that is allowed within present-day constraints. Drawing closely upon the fact that neutral current neutrino nucleon interactions are indistinguishable from DM-nucleon interactions at low energies, we extend this feature to high energies for a small, non-thermal but highly energetic population of DM particle chi, created via the decay of a significantly more massive and long-lived non-thermal relic phi, which forms the bulk of DM. If chi interacts with nucleons, its cross-section, like the neutrino-nucleus coherent cross-section, can rise sharply with energy leading to deep inelastic scattering, similar to neutral current neutrino-nucleon interactions at high energies. Thus, its direct detection may be possible via cascades in very large neutrino detectors. As a specific example, we apply this notion to the recently reported three ultra-high energy PeV cascade events clustered around 1 2 PeV at IceCube (IC). We discuss the features which may help discriminate this scenario from one in which only astrophysical neutrinos constitute the event sample in detectors like IC.

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