Spectral and Spatial Distortions of PeV Neutrinos from Scattering with Dark Matter

Understand

We study the effects on the spectrum and distribution of high-energy neutrinos due to scattering with dark matter both outside and within our galaxy, focusing on the neutrinos observed by the IceCube experiment with energies up to several PeV.

• If these neutrinos originate from extra-galactic astrophysical sources, then scattering in transit with dark matter particles will delay their arrival to Earth.
• This results in a cut-off in their spectrum at an energy set by the scattering cross section, allowing us to place an upper limit on cross sections $\sigma$ which increase with energy E at the level of $\sigma$ < 10^{-17} x (m / GeV) x (E / PeV)^2 cm^2, for dark matter particles of mass m.
• Once these neutrinos enter our galaxy, the large dark matter densities result in further scattering, especially towards the Galactic Centre.