Eur. Phys. J. C (2017) 77: 627
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-017-5213-y

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Search for neutrinos from dark matter self-annihilations in the center of the Milky Way with 3 years of IceCube/DeepCore

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 Department of Physics, University of Texas at Arlington, 502 Yates St., Science Hall Rm 108, Box 19059, Arlington, TX, 76019, USA
⁵ CTSPS, Clark-Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, 30314, USA
⁶ School of Physics and Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, GA 30332, USA
⁷ Department of Physics, Southern University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70813, USA
⁸ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA
⁹ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, CA 94720, USA
¹⁰ Institut für Physik, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany
¹¹ Fakultät für Physik & Astronomie, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, 44780, Bochum, Germany
¹² Université Libre de Bruxelles, Science Faculty CP230, 1050, Brussels, Belgium
¹³ Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Dienst ELEM, 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, CH-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 SNOLAB, 1039 Regional Road 24, Creighton Mine 9, Lively, ON, P3Y 1N2, Canada
³⁰ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
³¹ Department of Physics and Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA
³² Institute of Physics, University of Mainz, Staudinger Weg 7, 55099, Mainz, Germany
³³ Department of Physics, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 53201, USA
³⁴ Université de Mons, 7000, Mons, Belgium
³⁵ Physik-Department, Technische Universität München, 85748, Garching, Germany
³⁶ Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149, Münster, Germany
³⁷ Bartol Research Institute and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA
³⁸ Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520, USA
³⁹ Department of Physics, University of Oxford, 1 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3NP, UK
⁴⁰ Department of Physics, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
⁴¹ Physics Department, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, SD, 57701, USA
⁴² Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, River Falls, WI, 54022, USA
⁴³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA
⁴⁴ Oskar Klein Centre and Department of Physics, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden
⁴⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794-3800, USA
⁴⁶ Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, Korea
⁴⁷ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA
⁴⁸ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA
⁴⁹ Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, 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

^* e-mail: mortenmedici@gmail.com

Received: 23 May 2017
Accepted: 9 September 2017
Published online: 20 September 2017

Abstract

We present a search for a neutrino signal from dark matter self-annihilations in the Milky Way using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (IceCube). In 1005 days of data we found no significant excess of neutrinos over the background of neutrinos produced in atmospheric air showers from cosmic ray interactions. We derive upper limits on the velocity averaged product of the dark matter self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the dark matter particles . Upper limits are set for dark matter particle candidate masses ranging from 10 GeV up to 1 TeV while considering annihilation through multiple channels. This work sets the most stringent limit on a neutrino signal from dark matter with mass between 10 and 100 GeV, with a limit of for 100 GeV dark matter particles self-annihilating via to neutrinos (assuming the Navarro–Frenk–White dark matter halo profile).