No Arabic abstract
We present a search for an excess of neutrino interactions due to dark matter in the form of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) annihilating in the galactic center or halo based on the data set of Super-Kamiokande-I, -II, -III and -IV taken from 1996 to 2016. We model the neutrino flux, energy, and flavor distributions assuming WIMP self-annihilation is dominant to $ u overline{ u}$, $mu^+mu^-$, $boverline{b}$, or $W^+W^-$. The excess is in comparison to atmospheric neutrino interactions which are modeled in detail and fit to data. Limits on the self-annihilation cross section $langle sigma_{A} V rangle$ are derived for WIMP masses in the range 1 GeV to 10 TeV, reaching as low as $9.6 times10^{-23}$ cm$^3$ s$^{-1}$ for 5 GeV WIMPs in $bbar b$ mode and $1.2 times10^{-24}$ cm$^3$ s$^{-1}$ for 1 GeV WIMPs in $ u bar u$ mode. The obtained sensitivity of the Super-Kamiokande detector to WIMP masses below several tens of GeV is the best among similar indirect searches to date.
A search for boosted dark matter using 161.9 kiloton-years of Super-Kamiokande IV data is presented. We search for an excess of elastically scattered electrons above the atmospheric neutrino background, with a visible energy between 100 MeV and 1 TeV, pointing back to the Galactic Center or the Sun. No such excess is observed. Limits on boosted dark matter event rates in multiple angular cones around the Galactic Center and Sun are calculated. Limits are also calculated for a baseline model of boosted dark matter produced from cold dark matter annihilation or decay.
A search for a very-high-energy (VHE; >= 100 GeV) gamma-ray signal from self-annihilating particle Dark Matter (DM) is performed towards a region of projected distance r ~ 45-150 pc from the Galactic Center. The background-subtracted gamma-ray spectrum measured with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) gamma-ray instrument in the energy range between 300 GeV and 30 TeV shows no hint of a residual gamma-ray flux. Assuming conventional Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) and Einasto density profiles, limits are derived on the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section < sigma v> as a function of the DM particle mass. These are among the best reported so far for this energy range. In particular, for the DM particle mass of ~1 TeV, values for <sigma v> above 3 * 10^(-25) cm^3 s^(-1) are excluded for the Einasto density profile. The limits derived here differ much less for the chosen density profile parametrizations, as opposed to limits from gamma-ray observations of dwarf galaxies or the very center of the Milky Way, where the discrepancy is significantly larger.
Super-Kamiokande (SK) can search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) by detecting neutrinos produced from WIMP annihilations occurring inside the Sun. In this analysis, we include neutrino events with interaction vertices in the detector in addition to upward-going muons produced in the surrounding rock. Compared to the previous result, which used the upward-going muons only, the signal acceptances for light (few-GeV/$c^2$ $sim$ 200-GeV/$c^2$) WIMPs are significantly increased. We fit 3903 days of SK data to search for the contribution of neutrinos from WIMP annihilation in the Sun. We found no significant excess over expected atmospheric-neutrino background and the result is interpreted in terms of upper limits on WIMP-nucleon elastic scattering cross sections under different assumptions about the annihilation channel. We set the current best limits on the spin-dependent (SD) WIMP-proton cross section for WIMP masses below 200 GeV/$c^2$ (at 10 GeV/$c^2$, 1.49$times 10^{-39}$ cm$^2$ for $chichirightarrow b bar{b}$ and 1.31$times 10^{-40}$ cm$^2$ for $chichirightarrowtau^+tau^-$ annihilation channels), also ruling out some fraction of WIMP candidates with spin-independent (SI) coupling in the few-GeV/$c^2$ mass range.
We present the results of indirect searches for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with 1679.6 live days of data from the Super-Kamiokande detector using neutrino-induced upward through-going muons. The search is performed by looking for an excess of high energy muon neutrinos from WIMP annihilations in the Sun, the core of the Earth, and the Galactic Center, as compared to the number expected from the atmospheric neutrino background. No statistically significant excess was seen. We calculate flux limits in various angular cones around each of the above celestial objects. We obtain conservative model-independent upper limits on WIMP-nucleon cross-section as a function of WIMP mass and compare these results with the corresponding results from direct dark matter detection experiments.
A precision measurement of the cosmic-ray positron spectrum may help to solve the puzzle of the nature of dark matter. Pairwise annihilation of neutralinos, predicted by some supersymmetric extensions to the standard model of particle physics, may leave a distinct feature in the cosmic-ray positron spectrum. As the available data are limited both in terms of statistics and energy range, we are developing a balloon-borne detector (PEBS) with a large acceptance of 4000 cm^2 sr. A superconducting magnet creating a field of 0.8 T and a tracking device consisting of scintillating fibers of 0.25 mm diameter with silicon photomultiplier readout will allow rigidity and charge determination to energies above 100 GeV. The dominant proton background is suppressed by the combination of an electromagnetic calorimeter and a transition radiation detector consisting of fleece layers interspersed with straw-tube proportional counters. The calorimeter uses a sandwich of tungsten and scintillating fibers that are again read out by silicon photomultipliers.