Journal
JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY AND ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS
Volume -, Issue 3, Pages -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
- Fermi lab
- CETUP (Center for Theoretical Underground Physics and Related Areas)
- XII Plan DAE Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics Grant
- 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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