Determining properties of neutralino dark matter using high-energy neutrino events

Abstract

Observational evidence and theoretical arguments indicate that most of the universe is made of dark matter. Supersymmetry, an extension of the standard model of particle interactions, provides a natural candidate for dark matter: a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) called the neutralino. The next generation of high-energy neutrino telescopes could detect these particles indirectly from the neutrinos created when they annihilate after being captured in the Sun and Earth. The possibility of determining neutralino properties based on these neutrino fluxes is investigated for a range of supersymmetric models. Of particular interest is the ratio of events from the Sun and Earth, a quantity that may provide information about neutralino mass and relic density in the universe.