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  • Open Access

Searching for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube Upgrade

Dan Hooper* and Fabrizio Vassallo†

  • Department of Physics, Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA

  • *Contact author: dwhooper@wisc.edu
  • †Contact author: fevassallo@wisc.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 035014 – Published 12 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/qj8m-v4mr

Abstract

The IceCube Upgrade will provide unprecedented sensitivity to dark matter particles annihilating in the core of the Sun. For dark matter candidates with spin-dependent couplings to nuclei and that annihilate significantly to tau leptons or neutrinos, we find that the IceCube Upgrade will be capable of testing parameter space that is beyond the reach of existing direct detection experiments. After calculating the sensitivity of the IceCube Upgrade to dark matter annihilation in the Sun, we explore dark matter models that could be tested by this experiment, identifying two classes of scenarios as promising targets for such searches.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 035014– Published 12 August, 2025
  • Received 3 June 2025
  • Accepted 19 July 2025
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