Indirect searches of Galactic diffuse dark matter in INO-MagICAL detector

Abstract

The signatures for the existence of dark matter are revealed only through its gravitational interaction. Theoretical arguments support that the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) can be a class of dark matter and it can annihilate and/or decay to Standard Model particles, among which neutrino is a favorable candidate. We show that the proposed 50 kt Magnetized Iron CALorimeter (MagICAL) detector under the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project can play an important role in the indirect searches of Galactic diffuse dark matter in the neutrino and antineutrino mode separately. We present the sensitivity of 500 kt·yr MagICAL detector to set limits on the velocity-averaged self-annihilation cross-section (〈σv〉) and decay lifetime (τ ) of dark matter having mass in the range of 2 GeV ≤ mχ ≤ 90 GeV and 4 GeV ≤ mχ ≤ 180 GeV respectively, assuming no excess over the conventional atmospheric neutrino and antineutrino fluxes at the INO site. Our limits for low mass dark matter constrain the parameter space which has not been explored before. We show that MagICAL will be able to set competitive constraints, 〈σv〉 ≤ 1.87 × 10−24 cm3 s−1 for chi chi to nu overline{nu} and τ ≥ 4.8 × 1024 s for chi to nu overline{nu} at 90% C.L. (1 d.o.f.) for mχ = 10 GeV assuming the NFW as dark matter density profile.