Abstract: Earth neutrino tomography is a realistic possibility with current and future neutrino detectors, complementary to geophysics methods. The two main approaches are based on either partial absorption of the neutrino flux as it propagates through Earth (at energies about a few TeV) or on coherent Earth matter effects affecting the neutrino oscillations pattern (at energies below a few tens of GeV). In this work, we consider the latter approach, focusing on supernova neutrinos with tens of MeV. Whereas at GeVenergies, Earth matter effects are driven by the atmospheric mass-squared difference, at energies below similar to 100 MeV, it is the solar mass-squared difference that controls them. Unlike solar neutrinos, which suffer from significant weakening of the contribution to the oscillatory effect from remote structures due to the neutrino energy reconstruction capabilities of detectors, supernova neutrinos can have higher energies and, thus, can better probe Earth's interior. We shall revisit this possibility, using the most recent neutrino oscillation parameters and up-to-date supernova neutrino spectra. The capabilities of future neutrino detectors, such as DUNE, Hyper-Kamiokande, and JUNO, are presented, including the impact of the energy resolution and other factors. Assuming a supernova burst at 10 kpc, we show that the average Earth's core density could be determined within less than or similar to 10% at 1 sigma confidence level, Hyper-Kamiokande being, with its largest mass, the most promising detector to achieve this goal.

Abstract: Cosmological observations and cold dark matter N-body simulations indicate that our Universe is populated by numerous halos, where dark matter particles annihilate, potentially producing Standard Model particles. In this paper we calculate the contribution to the diffuse neutrino background from dark matter annihilations in halos at all redshifts and we estimate the future sensitivity to the annihilation cross section of neutrino telescopes such as IceCube or ANTARES. We consider various parametrizations to describe the internal halo properties and for the halo mass function in order to bracket the theoretical uncertainty in the limits from the modeling of the cosmological annihilation flux. We find that observations of the cosmic diffuse neutrino flux at large angular distances from the galactic center lead to constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section which are complementary to ( and for some extrapolations of the astrophysical parameters, better than) those stemming from observations of the Milky Way halo, especially for neutrino telescopes not pointing directly to the Milky Way center, as is the case of IceCube.

Abstract: Cosmic-ray interactions with the atmosphere produce a flux of neutrinos in all directions with energies extending above the TeV scale(1). The Earth is not a fully transparent medium for neutrinos with energies above a few TeV, as the neutrinonucleon cross-section is large enough to make the absorption probability non-negligible(2). Since absorption depends on energy and distance travelled, studying the distribution of the TeV atmospheric neutrinos passing through the Earth offers an opportunity to infer its density profiles(3-7). This has never been done, however, due to the lack of relevant data. Here we perform a neutrino-based tomography of the Earth using actual data-one-year of through-going muon atmospheric neutrino data collected by the IceCube telescope(8). Using only weak interactions, in a way that is completely independent of gravitational measurements, we are able to determine the mass of the Earth and its core, its moment of inertia, and to establish that the core is denser than the mantle. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach to study the Earth's internal structure, which is complementary to traditional geophysics methods. Neutrino tomography could become more competitive as soon as more statistics is available, provided that the sources of systematic uncertainties are fully under control.