| Record |
Author  |
Bhattacharya, A.; Esmaili, A.; Palomares-Ruiz, S.; Sarcevic, I. |
| Title |
Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2017 |
Publication |
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics |
Abbreviated Journal |
J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. |
| Volume |
07 |
Issue |
7 |
Pages |
027 - 36pp |
| Keywords |
dark matter theory; neutrino astronomy; neutrino detectors; ultra high energy photons and neutrinos |
| Abstract |
After the first four years of data taking, the IceCube neutrino telescope has observed 54 high-energy starting events (HESE) with deposited energies between 20TeV and 2PeV. The background from atmospheric muons and neutrinos is expected to be of about 20 events, all below 100TeV, thus pointing towards the astrophysical origin of about 8 events per year in that data set. However, their precise origin remains unknown. Here, we perform a detailed analysis of this event sample (considering simultaneously the energy, hemisphere and topology of the events) by assuming two contributions for the signal events: an isotropic power-law flux and a flux from decaying heavy dark matter. We fit the mass and lifetime of the dark matter and the normalization and spectral index of an isotropic power-law flux, for various decay channels of dark matter. We find that a significant contribution from dark matter decay is always slightly favored, either to explain the excess below 100TeV, as in the case of decays to quarks or, as in the case of neutrino channels, to explain the three multi-PeV events. Also, we consider the possibility to interpret all the data by dark matter decays only, considering various combinations of two decay channels. We show that the decaying dark matter scenario provides a better fit to HESE data than the isotropic power-law flux. |
| Address |
[Bhattacharya, Atri] Univ Liege, Space Sci Technol & Astrophys Res STAR Inst, Bat B5a, B-4000 Liege, Belgium, Email: a.bhattacharya@ulg.ac.be; |
| Corporate Author |
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Thesis |
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| Publisher |
Iop Publishing Ltd |
Place of Publication |
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Editor |
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| Language |
English |
Summary Language |
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Original Title |
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| Series Editor |
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Series Title |
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Abbreviated Series Title |
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| Series Volume |
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Series Issue |
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Edition |
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| ISSN |
1475-7516 |
ISBN |
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Medium |
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| Area |
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Expedition |
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Conference |
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| Notes |
WOS:000406420500009 |
Approved |
no |
| Is ISI |
yes |
International Collaboration |
yes |
| Call Number |
IFIC @ pastor @ |
Serial |
3243 |
| Permanent link to this record |
