Prospects for detecting dark matter with neutrino telescopes in light of recent results from direct detection experiments

Abstract

Direct detection dark matter experiments, lead by the CDMS collaboration, have placed increasingly stronger constraints on the cross sections for elastic scattering of WIMPs on nucleons. These results impact the prospects for the indirect detection of dark matter using neutrino telescopes. With this in mind, we revisit the prospects for detecting neutrinos produced by the annihilation of WIMPs in the Sun. We find that the latest bounds do not seriously limit the models most accessible to next generation kilometer-scale neutrino telescopes such as IceCube. This is largely due to the fact that models with significant spin-dependent couplings to protons are the least constrained and, at the same time, the most promising because of the efficient capture of WIMPs in the Sun. We identify models where dark matter particles are beyond the reach of any planned direct detection experiments while within reach of neutrino telescopes. In summary, we find that, even when contemplating recent direct detection results, neutrino telescopes still have the opportunity to play an important as well as complementary role in the search for particle dark matter.