The Detection of Cold Dark Matter with Neutrino Telescopes

Abstract

High energy neutrinos are produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles in our galaxy. These are presently searched for with large area, deep underground neutrino telescopes. Cold dark matter particles, trapped inside the sun, are an abundant source of such neutrinos. Back-of-the-envelope calculations are sufficient to demonstrate how neutrino telescopes are competitive with existing and future particle colliders such as the LHC in the search for weakly interacting massive cold dark matter particles. We will emphasize that a $1\,\rm km^2$ area is the natural scale for a future instrument capable of probing the full GeV--TeV mass range of cold dark matter particle candidates by searching for high energy neutrinos produced by their annihilation in the sun. We speculate on what such a detector may look like.