Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 82
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4582-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

First search for dark matter annihilations in the Earth with the IceCube detector

IceCube Collaboration

¹ III. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen University, 52056, Aachen, Germany
² Department of Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, 5005, Australia
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alaska Anchorage, 3211 Providence Dr., Anchorage, AK, 99508, USA
⁴ CTSPS, Clark-Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, 30314, USA
⁵ School of Physics and Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA
⁶ Department of Physics, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70813, USA
⁷ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁸ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁹ Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany
¹⁰ Fakultät für Physik & Astronomie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany
¹¹ Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Nussallee 12, 53115, Bonn, Germany
¹² Science Faculty CP230, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
¹³ Dienst ELEM, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
¹⁴ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
¹⁵ Department of Physics and Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan
¹⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
¹⁷ Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Center for Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
¹⁹ Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA
²⁰ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, 2100, Copenhagen, Denmark
²¹ Department of Physics, TU Dortmund University, 44221, Dortmund, Germany
²² Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA
²³ Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, T6G 2E1, Canada
²⁴ Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058, Erlangen, Germany
²⁵ Département de physique nucléaire et corpusculaire, Université de Genève, 1211, Geneva, Switzerland
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Gent, 9000, Gent, Belgium
²⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA
²⁸ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
²⁹ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
³⁰ Department of Physics and Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
³¹ Institute of Physics, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, 55099, Mainz, Germany
³² Department of Physics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA
³³ Université de Mons, 7000, Mons, Belgium
³⁴ Physik-department, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
³⁵ Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany
³⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
³⁷ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
³⁸ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3NP, UK
³⁹ Department of Physics, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
⁴⁰ Physics Department, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, 57701, USA
⁴¹ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, River Falls, WI, 54022, USA
⁴² Department of Physics, Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden
⁴³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-3800, USA
⁴⁴ Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Korea
⁴⁵ Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 1A7, Canada
⁴⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA
⁴⁷ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
⁴⁸ Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
⁴⁹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
⁵⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 75120, Uppsala, Sweden
⁵¹ Department of Physics, University of Wuppertal, 42119, Wuppertal, Germany
⁵² DESY, 15735, Zeuthen, Germany
⁵³ Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-0032, Japan

^* e-mail: jan.lunemann@vub.ac.be
^** e-mail: jan.kunnen@vub.ac.be

Received: 6 September 2016
Accepted: 16 December 2016
Published online: 8 February 2017

Abstract

We present the results of the first IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in the center of the Earth. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), candidates for dark matter, can scatter off nuclei inside the Earth and fall below its escape velocity. Over time the captured WIMPs will be accumulated and may eventually self-annihilate. Among the annihilation products only neutrinos can escape from the center of the Earth. Large-scale neutrino telescopes, such as the cubic kilometer IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the South Pole, can be used to search for such neutrino fluxes. Data from 327 days of detector livetime during 2011/2012 were analyzed. No excess beyond the expected background from atmospheric neutrinos was detected. The derived upper limits on the annihilation rate of WIMPs in the Earth and the resulting muon flux are an order of magnitude stronger than the limits of the last analysis performed with data from IceCube’s predecessor AMANDA. The limits can be translated in terms of a spin-independent WIMP–nucleon cross section. For a WIMP mass of 50 GeV this analysis results in the most restrictive limits achieved with IceCube data.