Limits on cold-dark-matter candidates from deep underground detectors

Abstract

Weakly interacting massive particles which are candidates for the dark mass in the halo of the Galaxy would be captured by the Sun, accumulate in the solar core, and annihilate. We present a systematic evaluation of the neutrino signal produced by such annihilations. Since most annihilations occur in the dense solar interior, only prompt neutrinos escape with sufficiently high energy to be readily observable in deep underground detectors. We find that existing underground experiments are capable of finding—or excluding—several possible cold-dark-matter candidates.