Licentiate thesis: A search for Dark Matter Annihilations in the Sun with IceCube and Related Studies

by Mr Matthias Danninger (Stockholm University)

Friday 16 Sept 2011, 10:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

A4:1003

Dark matter could be indirectly detected through the observation of neutrinos produced as part of its self-annihilation process. Possible signatures are an excess neutrino flux from the Sun, where dark matter could be gravitationally trapped. The recent commissioning of the full DeepCore sub-array, a low-energy extension of the IceCube neutrino observatory, offers exciting opportunities for neutrino physics in the energy region of 10 GeV to 1 TeV. DeepCore's improved energy reach will, in particular, provide sensitivity to neutrinos from attractive WIMP candidates, like the Neutralino or the lightest Kaluza-Klein particle (LKP), down to WIMP masses in the region of about 50 GeV. This will lead to stringent upper limits on the flux of muons from dark matter annihilations in the Sun and constraints on WIMP-proton cross-sections. This thesis reports on the search for dark matter annihilations in the Sun with the IceCube neutrino detector in the originally planned 86-string configuration, which includes the full DeepCore sub-array. The expected sensitivity for the detector livetime of 180 days is calculated for the Neutralino and the LKP for the IceCube detector with and without the DeepCore sub-array. This allows a detailed estimation of the expected benefit for low mass WIMP searches with DeepCore. This thesis has four papers attached. Paper I and II discuss the extension of the conventional solar Dark Matter searches with IceCube to include the search for the LKP. Paper III describes an analysis of the IceCube-79 string configuration data to search for neutrinos that might be emitted along with the observed X-rays and $\gamma$-rays of the unusual September 2010 flare state of the Crab Nebula. The fourth paper reports on the current status of the IceCube-79 string solar WIMP analysis.