Constraining dark matter capture and annihilation cross sections by searching for neutrino signature from the Earth's core

Abstract

We study the sensitivity of IceCube/DeepCore detector to dark matter annihilations in the Earth's core. We focus on annihilation modes chi chi -> nu(nu) over cap, tau(+)tau(-), h (h) over cap, and W+W-. Both track and cascade events are considered in our analysis. By fixing the dark matter annihilation cross section <sigma nu > at some nominal values, we study the sensitivity of the IceCube/DeepCore detector to dark matter spin- independent cross section sigma(SI)(p) for m(chi) ranging from few tens of GeV to 10 TeV. This sensitivity is compared with the existing IceCube 79-string constraint on the same cross section, which was obtained by searching for dark matter annihilations in the Sun. We compare this sensitivity to dark matter direct detection results as well, in particular the XENON100 (2012) limit and the parameter regions preferred by DAMA and CRESST- II experiments. We also present IceCube/DeepCore sensitivity to hs.i as a function of m(chi) by fixing sigma(SI)(p) at XENON100 (2012) and XENON1T limits, respectively. This sensitivity is compared with the preferred dark matter parameter range derived from the combined fitting to PAMELA and AMS02 positron fraction data. We conclude that the search for dark matter annihilations in the Earth's core provides competitive constraints on sigma(SI)(p) and <sigma nu > in the case of low- mass dark matter. Particularly, the expected constraint on sigma(SI)(p) for 5 years of data taking in IceCube/DeepCore is more stringent than the current IceCube 79- string limit mentioned above.