Detectability of weakly interacting dark matter candidates

Abstract

We have examined the detectability of weakly interacting dark matter candidates that constitute not all, but only a subdominant component of galactic cold dark matter. We find that neutralinos may remain detectable in direct dark matter searches even if they constitute only 1% of the halo dark matter. Regarding indirect detection, we find that upward-going muon fluxes in underground detectors from neutralino annihilations in the Sun and in the Earth can remain above the threshold of detectability of 10 muons/km 2/yr for neutralinos composing 1% or more of the halo dark matter. Thus if a signal is seen in any of the current dark matter searches it is possible we are only detecting the subdominant component of the total cold dark matter.