Improved methods for solar Dark Matter searches with the IceCube neutrino telescope

• Main Author: Zoll, Marcel
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Fysikum 2015
• Subjects: IceCube; neutrino; sun; WIMP; dark matter; cluster analysis; Astronomy; Astrophysics and Cosmology; Astronomi; astrofysik och kosmologi; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-125092

Gravitationally captured Dark Matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles(WIMPs) can annihilate into standard-model particles, such as neutrinos. The IceCube neutrinodetector at the South Pole is an excellent instrument to search for such a neutrino signal fromthe Sun. We present an alternative analysis which improves on previous approaches, in particularin background-dominated regions. Newly developed techniques based on hit clustering and hit-based vetos allow a more accurate reconstruction and identification of events in the detector andthereby a stronger rejection of background. These techniques are also applicable to other IceCubeanalyses and event filters. We present results for a solar WIMP search using the first year of datataken with the completed IceCube detector with 86 strings.