Prospective Sensitity to WIMP Dark Matter with the IceCube Upgrade

While astrophysical observations imply that 85% of the matter content is unaccounted for, the nature of this dark matter (DM) component remains unknown. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)—DM particles that interact at or below the weak interaction scale—could naturally explain this missing matter. These interactions with the Standard Model (SM) allow them to be gravitationally captured in celestial bodies like the Sun. Trapped DM in the solar core could subsequently annihilate, producing stable SM particles, of which only neutrinos can escape the Sun’s dense interior. Therefore, an excess of neutrinos originating from the direction of the Sun would serve as evidence of DM. The IceCube Upgrade, a dense infill of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, will lower the energy threshold and improve sensitivity in the range from 1 to 500 GeV, thereby enhancing IceCube’s ability to detect GeV-scale DM. In this contribution, I present projections of the IceCube Upgrade’s sensitivity to the DM-proton scattering cross section for DM masses between 3 GeV and 500 GeV. These sensitivities position IceCube as the most sensitive indirect detection experiment for DM in the mass range from 3 GeV to 10 TeV.

Authors

Publication Details

Published
2025-09-24
DOI
https://doi.org/10.22323/1.501.0486
Primary Topic
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Prospective Sensitity to WIMP Dark Matter with the IceCube Upgrade

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni et al.
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
article

Prospective Sensitity to WIMP Dark Matter with the IceCube Upgrade

L. Schumacher, L. Köpke, Sofia Athanasiadou, Kiara Carloni, Sarah Mechbal, Rishi Babu, Philip Weigel, Arun Vaidyanathan, Thijs van Eeden, Diego Alberto Coloma Borja, James DeLaunay, G. M. Spiczak, Christy Love, M. Lamoureux, Krishnamoorthi Jayakumar, Thien Nhan Chau, Spencer Griswold, Woosik Kang, I. Taboada, Daniel Salazar-Gallegos, S. R. Klein, Frank Schröder, Jonathan Mauro, Felix Schlüter, C. H. Wiebusch, P. Desiati, Lukas Hennig, C. De Clercq, Hershal Pandya, Alexander Sandrock, Sebastian Schindler, Yuriy Popovych, Federico Bontempo, Claudio Kopper, Ek Narayan Paudel, A. Parenti, G. de Wasseige, Veronika Palušová, A. Haungs, Erik Ganster, Leonora Kardum, Shefali Shefali, J. Vandenbroucke, Colton Hill, Laurent Arnaud, Frederik Hermann Lauber, J. C. Díaz–Vélez, Kareem Ramadan Farrag, Alexander Kappes, Ramesh Koirala, Julian Saffer, Axel Ponten, Christoph Raab, J. V. Santen, Félix Carbonell, Matheus Hostert, Spencer Axani, Miaochen Jin, Karriem Upshaw, Diyaselis Delgado, G. C. Hill, Carolin Klein, Felix Henningsen, Markus Dittmer, J. M. Conrad, P. Eller, S. Yoshida, Julia Book, Aswathi Balagopal, Nils Heyer, Joelle Savelberg, A. R. Fazely, Finn Mayhew, Kaustav Dutta, Bennett Brinson, F. Halzen, Jeffrey Lazar, E. Bernardini, Alicia Mand, David Berley, J. V. Mead, Leon Hamacher, Kael Hanson, Matthias Thiesmeyer, John Rack-Helleis, Thomas Ehrhardt, Agnieszka Leszczyńska, Maximilian Meier, Martina Karl, C. Pérez de los Heros, Cristina Lagunas Gualda, Uwe Naumann, Shiqi Yu, Emma Kun, John Evans, Darren Grant, Sreetama Goswami, Sanjib Kumar Agarwalla, T. Glüsenkamp, C. Finley, Anna Eimer, Jan Soedingrekso, C. Argüelles, Satoshi Fukami, Aishwarya Vijai, Attila Hidvégi, Kathrine Mørch Groth, Christian Spannfellner, Fahim Varsi, Lucas Bloom, Jan Weldert, Barbara Skrzypek, X. Bai, Gaurav Garg, Yuya Makino, M. Kowalski, E. Blaufuss, Seowon Choi, Shannon Gray, V. A. Parrish, D. Chirkin, Vedant Basu, Zelong Zhang, Oliver Janik, Gerhard Krieger, Yarno Merckx, Christian Gläser, O. Botner, Alexander Harnisch, Xianwu Xu, Kirsten Tollefson, S. Ter–Antonyan, J. Böttcher, Erin O’Sullivan, Bruno Benkel, S. Sclafani, Maria Liubarska, Nora Valtonen-Mattila, Thomas Stuttard, Hannah Erpenbeck, Will Thompson, Sarah Mancina, Lukas Merten, T. Stezelberger, G. W. Sullivan, T. Karg, R. W. Moore, Jakob Beise, Christian Haack, Akanksha Katil, Simeon Bash, A. Ishihara, Alex Wen, L. Halve, Daniel Durnford, Zoë Rechav, A. Obertacke Pollmann, J. S. Gallagher, William Luszczak, Leander Fischer, Aske Rosted, Rachel Procter-Murphy, Ava Ghadimi, Jannis Necker, Rasha Abbasi, W. Iwakiri, Peter John Cusack Coleman, M. J. Larson, Perri Zilberman, Janeth Valverde, Yang Lyu, Paras Koundal, K. Meagher, Emre Burak Yildizci, Zheyang Chen, Andreas Noell, Chang Dong Rho, R. Maruyama, Caterina Boscolo Meneguolo, Minjin Jeong, Ella Roberts, Russell J. Hewett, Vivian O'Dell, Jose Carpio, Joanna Kiryluk, Angela Zegarelli, S. BenZvi, A. Franckowiak, Ryan T. Burley, Lea Schlickmann, Dirk Ryckbosch, Shuyang Deng, K. Noda, Yosuke Ashida, Waleed Esmail, Joshua Villarreal, K. Hultqvist, N. Whitehorn, C. Rott, Larissa Paul, Javier González, M. A. DuVernois, Thomas Huber, N. Kurahashi, Anil Kumar, Gerrit Wrede, Hans Niederhausen, W. Rhode, Alejandra Granados, Francesco Lucarelli, K. Andeen, D. B. Fox, Tomas Kontrimas, Karlijn Kruiswijk, Merlin Schaufel, Martin Ha Minh, Anatoli Fedynitch, Ali Kheirandish, P. A. Evenson, Tetiana Kozynets, K. Helbing, Jesse Osborn, Megha Venugopal, Dennis Soldin, M. Kauer, Jean-Marco Alameddine, Sebastian BOSER, David Joseph Guevel, Frank McNally, Jason Koskinen, Mark Weyrauch, Ivan Martínez-Soler, T. Montaruli, Else Magnus, Martin Wolf, Elena Manao, Yitong Liu, Alexander Novikov, N. Kamp, Lars Philipp Heuermann, Chiara Bellenghi, Patrick Hatch, Philipp Fürst, J. J. Beatty, M. García, Benedikt Riedel, Sharmistha Chattopadhyay, Allan Hallgren, M. Plum, Maria Prado Rodriguez, Kayla Leonard DeHolton, Emmett Krupczak, Pascal Gutjahr, Pranav Sampathkumar, S. Seunarine, Sam Hori, Marc Jacquart, Tista Mukherjee, M. Stamatikos, D. Besson, Adam Rifaie, Doğa Veske, Lincoln Draper, Philipp Soldin, Tanvi Krishnan, Leonhard Eidenschink, Abdul Rehman, Michael G. Campana, Markus Ackermann, Giacomo Sommani, Szabolcs Márka, Xinyue Kang, Delaney Butterfield, Yasutsugu Morii, Alina Kochocki, Martin Rongen, Michael Handt, Krijn de Vries, Mohammad Ful Hossain Seikh, Anuj Kumar Upadhyay, B. Pries, N. Rad, Alfonso García, Marjon Moulai, M. Ahlers, Berit Schlüter, Kwok Lung Fan, Jonas Häußler, Karolin Hymon, C. Ha, Yuhua Yao, Jonas Hellrung, Donghwa Kang, Stef Verpoest, Matthias Vereecken, Alexandra Trettin, J. L. Kelley, Simeon Reusch, Josh F. Peterson, Paul Behrens, Summer Blot, Maxwell Nakos, H. Kolanoski, Ludwig Neste, Nick Schmeisser, Lucas Witthaus, Anke Mosbrugger, Eliot Genton, Teresa Pernice, Patrick Schaile, H. Kimku, Martin Langgård Ravn, Leonardo Ricca, L. Lu, Shuo Zhang, Andrew Wang, Li Ruohan, Nobuhiro Shimizu, Yukiho Kobayashi, Wenjie Hou, Samyak Jain, Justin Mitchell, J. Becker Tjus, Christoph Günther, Chris Weaver, Serap Tilav, Ralph Engel, Zsuzsa Márka, Najia Moureen Binte Amin, Andreas Weindl, Kendall Mahn, Robert Snihur, Dawn Williams, Arifa Khatee Zathul, Kotoyo Hoshina, Robert Young, Sebastian Vergara Carrasco, Stephanie Hickford, Kara Hoffman, Subir Sarkar, A. Søgaard, Jenni Adams, Sally Robertson, D. Seckel, Albrecht Karle, Juliana Stachurska, G. T. Przybylski, Ryan Bay, Alex Olivas, Juan Pablo Yáñez, T. DeYoung, Delia Tosi, Dan Hooper, Katherine Rawlins, Torsten Schmidt, Timo Stürwald, M. U. Nisa, Todor Stanev, Andrii Terliuk, Elisa Resconi, Alba Domi, Brian Clark, H. Schieler, Ioana Codrina Maris, Christian Spiering, C. Lin, G. B. Yu, Lilly Pyras, Dominik Elsässer, Nahee Park, Marcos Santander, Pavel Zhelnin, Simona Toscano, Sean Griffin, John Hardin, L. Gerhardt, Gabriel Collin, Manish Khanal, Andrés Medina, Juanan Aguilar, Johannes Werthebach, Matti Jansson, Steven W. Barwick, Jim Braun, Enrico Ellinger, Rebecca Corley, C. Walck, Alan Coleman, Nora Feigl, Riya Shah, Neha Navnitkumar Lad, Jessie Thwaites, Jim Madsen, Chris Wendt, Elizabeth Warrick, A. Connolly, Doug Cowen, Richard Naab, Miriam Neumann, B. L. Henke, Jiyuan Liao, N. van Eijndhoven, T. Ruhe, Per Arne Sevle Myhr, Zoe Brisson-Tsavoussis, Shoukat Ali, Ramy Hmaid, Sonke Schwirn, Leo Seen, Grace Sanger-Johnson, Marco Scarnera, Stephen DiKerby, Lars Marten, Vaidehi Poojyam, Lene van Rootselaar, Thomas Delmeulle, Steven Eulig, Joe Baines-Holmes, Despina Mousadi, Emile Moyaux, Ian Reistroffer, Ilya Bodo, Amar Thakuri, Lasse Dueser, Logan Molchany
article en

Abstract

While astrophysical observations imply that 85% of the matter content is unaccounted for, the nature of this dark matter (DM) component remains unknown. Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs)—DM particles that interact at or below the weak interaction scale—could naturally explain this missing matter. These interactions with the Standard Model (SM) allow them to be gravitationally captured in celestial bodies like the Sun. Trapped DM in the solar core could subsequently annihilate, producing stable SM particles, of which only neutrinos can escape the Sun’s dense interior. Therefore, an excess of neutrinos originating from the direction of the Sun would serve as evidence of DM. The IceCube Upgrade, a dense infill of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, will lower the energy threshold and improve sensitivity in the range from 1 to 500 GeV, thereby enhancing IceCube’s ability to detect GeV-scale DM. In this contribution, I present projections of the IceCube Upgrade’s sensitivity to the DM-proton scattering cross section for DM masses between 3 GeV and 500 GeV. These sensitivities position IceCube as the most sensitive indirect detection experiment for DM in the mass range from 3 GeV to 10 TeV.

National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nvidia, Michigan State University, Villum Fonden, Polarforskningssekretariatet, Marquette University, Western Canada Research Grid, European Commission, National Research Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Belgian Federal Science Policy Office, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, National Research Foundation of Korea, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse, Vetenskapsrådet, RWTH Aachen University, Chiba University, Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics, Alliance de recherche numérique du Canada, College of Engineering, Michigan State University, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Marsden Fund, Institute for Global Prominent Research, Chiba University, Office of Polar Programs, Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Office of Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
Openalex Percentile: Top 89%
Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.