All-flavour Search for Neutrinos from Dark Matter Annihilations in the Milky Way with IceCube/DeepCore

• Published in: arXiv.org 2016-09
• Main Authors: Ackermann, M, Altmann, D, Andeen, K, Archinger, M, Arlen, T C, Bay, R, K -H Becker, BenZvi, S, Bernhard, A, Bohm, C, Burgman, A, Casey, J, Cheung, E, Chirkin, D, Clark, K, Collin, G H, Conrad, J M, Cowen, D F, Cruz Silva, A H, Dembinski, H, de Vries, K D, de With, M, Dujmovic, H, Eberhardt, B, Ehrhardt, T, Filimonov, K, Flis, S, Franckowiak, A, Gaior, R, Ghorbani, K, Gladstone, L, Golup, G, Gonzalez, J G, Grant, D, Haack, C, Hansen, E, Hansmann, B, Hebecker, D, Heereman, D, Hickford, S, Hill, G C, Hoffman, K D, Holzapfel, K, Huber, M, Hultqvist, K, Jones, B J P, Kappes, A, Karg, T, Katz, U, Kauer, M, Kelley, J L, Kintscher, T, Klein, S R, Kolanoski, H, Köpke, L, Kopper, C, Kopper, S, Krings, K, Krüger, C, Labare, M, Leuermann, M, Mahn, K B M, McNally, F, Medici, M, Meures, T, Naumann, U, Olivas, A, Pandya, H, C Pérez de los Heros, Pieloth, D, Price, P B, Raab, C, Rädel, L, Richman, M, Ryckbosch, D, Sanchez Herrera, S E, Sandrock, A, Sarkar, S, Schimp, M, Schöneberg, S, Stamatikos, M, Steuer, A, Stezelberger, T, Ström, R, Strotjohann, N L, Toscano, S, Usner, M, Vallecorsa, S, Vandenbroucke, J, N van Eijndhoven, Veenkamp, J, Wallace, A, Wandkowsky, N, Wendt, C, Westerhoff, S, Wills, L, Wood, T R, Woschnagg, K, Yodh, G, Yoshida, S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Angular resolution; Cascades; Dark matter; Muons; Neutrinos; Searching; Strings
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1606.00209

We present the first IceCube search for a signal of dark matter annihilations in the Milky Way using all-flavour neutrino-induced particle cascades. The analysis focuses on the DeepCore sub-detector of IceCube, and uses the surrounding IceCube strings as a veto region in order to select starting events in the DeepCore volume. We use 329 live-days of data from IceCube operating in its 86-string configuration during 2011-2012. No neutrino excess is found, the final result being compatible with the background-only hypothesis. From this null result, we derive upper limits on the velocity-averaged self-annihilation cross-section, < \sigma_A v >, for dark matter candidate masses ranging from 30 GeV up to 10 TeV, assuming both a cuspy and a flat-cored dark matter halo profile. For dark matter masses between 200 GeV and 10 TeV, the results improve on all previous IceCube results on < \sigma_A v >, reaching a level of 10^{-23} cm^3 s^-1, depending on the annihilation channel assumed, for a cusped NFW profile. The analysis demonstrates that all-flavour searches are competitive with muon channel searches despite the intrinsically worse angular resolution of cascades compared to muon tracks in IceCube.