Multi-Megaton Ice Cherenkov DetectorA conclusive test of many low mass dark matter scenarios, a more precise study of atmospheric oscillation parameters, and an enhanced sensitivity towards supernova burst neutrinos would require a very large neutrino detector with a low energy threshold. Such a detector could be constructed in two phases at the geographic South Pole, making use of the excellent infrastructure, good optical properties of the naturally occurring detector medium and support structure and benefit from the IceCube detector to veto atmospheric muons. A vision to construct a multi-mega-ton ring-imaging ice-cherenkov detector capable of detecting 100 MeV events with numerous scientific applications is the goal of the PINGU CollaborationDetails: Talk/paper |
 |
Enhanced Sensitivity to Dark Matter Self-annihilations in the Sun using Neutrino Spectral InformationJCAP09(2011)029 Self-annihilating dark matter gravitationally captured by the Sun could yield observable neutrino signals at current and next generation neutrino detectors. By exploiting such signals, neutrino detectors can probe the spin-dependent scattering of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with nucleons in the Sun. We describe a method how to convert constraints on neutrino fluxes to a limit on the WIMP-nucleon scattering cross section. In this method all neutrino flavors can be treated in a very similar way. We study the sensitivity of neutrino telescopes for Solar WIMP signals using vertex contained events and find that this detection channel is of particular importance in the search for low mass WIMPs. We obtain highly competitive sensitivities with all neutrino flavor channels for a Megaton sized detector through the application of basic spectral selection criteria. Best results are obtained with the electron neutrino channel. We discuss associated uncertainties and provide a procedure how to treat them for analyses in a consistent way. |
 |
 |
Search for Dark Matter from the Galactic Halo with the IceCube Neutrino ObservatoryPhys.Rev. D84 (2011) 022004Self-annihilating or decaying dark matter in the Galactic halo might produce high energy neutrinos detectable with neutrino telescopes. We have conducted a search for such a signal using 276 days of data from the IceCube 22-string configuration detector acquired during 2007 and 2008. The effect of halo model choice in the extracted limit is reduced by performing a search that considers the outer halo region and not the Galactic Center. We constrain any large scale neutrino anisotropy and are able to set a limit on the dark matter self-annihilation cross section of sigma_v ~ 10^-22 cm^3/s for WIMP masses above 1 TeV, assuming a monochromatic neutrino line spectrum. |
Neutrinos from Dark Matter self-annihilation in the Galactic haloarXiv:0912.5183 (Proceedings CCAPP Symposium'09) Neutrinos produced in dark matter self-annihilations in the Galactic halo might be detectable by IceCube. We present a search for such a signal using the IceCube detector in the 22-string configuration. We first evaluate the sensitivity before presenting the result based on the collected data. We find that even with the partially instrumented detector and a small dataset, we are able to meaningfully constrain the dark matter self-annihilation cross-section. Future analyses, based on data sets from a larger detector and the inclusion of the Galactic center, are expected to considerably improve these results. |
 |
 |
Neutrino Oscillation Measurements with IceCubearXiv:0810.3698 (Proceedings ICHEP)We present preliminary results for a neutrino oscillation analysis in progress on data collected with the IceCube 22-string detector during 2007 and 2008. The goal of this analysis is to measure muon neutrino disappearance as a function of energy for a constant baseline length of the diameter of the Earth by studying vertically up-going muon neutrinos. At this baseline disappearance effects are expected to become sizable at neutrino energies below 100 GeV. This energy range has not been previously explored with IceCube, however due to IceCube's vertical geometry there is some sensitivity for this specific class of events. Based on preliminary selection criteria, we show that IceCube has the potential to detect these events and we estimate the sensitivity to determining oscillation parameters. |
Searching for Dark Matter with BeautyPhys.Rev.Lett.96:171802,2006 We searched for scalar bottom quarks in 156 pb−1 of ¯pp collisions at ps = 1.96 TeV recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron. Scalar bottom quarks can be produced from gluino decays in R-parity conserving models of supersymmetry when the mass of the gluino exceeds that of the scalar bottom quark. Then, a scalar bottom quark can decay into a bottom quark and a neutralino. To search for this scenario, we investigated events with large missing transverse energy and at least three jets, two or more of which were identified as containing a secondary vertex from the hadronization of b quarks. We found four candidate events, where 2.6 ± 0.7 are expected from standard model processes, and placed 95% confidence level lower limits on gluino and scalar bottom quark masses of up to 280 and 240 GeV/c2 , respectively. |
 |
| Contact Information: Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics Physics Research Building 191 West Woodruff Avenue Columbus, OH 43210, USA |
Office: M2024 PRB Phone: +1 (614) 292-1795 Fax: +1 (614) 292-7741 Email: carott@mps.ohio-state.edu |
 |