Dark matter parameters from neutrino telescopes

by Katie Richardson (University of New Mexico)

Tuesday Sep 20, 2011, 3:30 PM → 4:30 PM Pacific/Honolulu

417A (Watanabe Hall)

Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss how neutrino telescopes may help us extract dark matter parameters and can in fact place the most stringent bounds on the spin-dependent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section. In particular the dark matter annihilation final state provides a distinctive signature that allows us to discriminate among classes of dark matter models. Models with gauge boson or tau final states alongside neutrino final states are distinguishable, and the theoretically well-motivated U(1)_B-L extension of the MSSM produces just such a mixture of final states. It is feasible that the energy reconstruction capability of the IceCube neutrino telescope will preserve the important features. Finally, I will address the prospect for differentiating neutrino flavor final states from one another.