Probing Dark Matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre with TRIDENT

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Wang, Yingwei, Chu, Xinhui, Cheek, Andrew, Morton-Blake, Iwan, Chang, Qichao, Giacinti, Gwenael, Kaci, Samy, Xiang, Xin, Xu, Donglian, Zhang, Fuyudi
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Wang, Yingwei
Chu, Xinhui
Cheek, Andrew
Morton-Blake, Iwan
Chang, Qichao
Giacinti, Gwenael
Kaci, Samy
Xiang, Xin
Xu, Donglian
Zhang, Fuyudi
author_facet Wang, Yingwei
Chu, Xinhui
Cheek, Andrew
Morton-Blake, Iwan
Chang, Qichao
Giacinti, Gwenael
Kaci, Samy
Xiang, Xin
Xu, Donglian
Zhang, Fuyudi
contents We determine the future sensitivity of the TRIDENT neutrino telescope to dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre. By applying the full detector design we show that TRIDENT will probe annihilation rates down to $\langleσv\rangle\approx5\times10^{-27}\,{\rm cm}^3\,{\rm s}^{-1}$ for a $10\,{\rm TeV}$ dark matter, which is below the thermal freeze-out benchmark. The analysis is carried out with all-flavour neutrino interactions, where we demonstrate that cascade events, primarily due to $ν_{e,τ}$, show greater sensitivity to a dark matter signal compared to the more commonly studied track events. Furthermore, we highlight the impact of a previously overlooked background, Galactic neutrinos produced from interactions between hadronic cosmic rays and interstellar gas. We find dark matter sensitivities are more strongly degraded in the high energy region above $\sim 10\, {\rm TeV}$, with a maximal weakening of approximately a factor of $\sim 2$. This effect remains smaller than the uncertainty associated with the dark matter density profile but can nonetheless mimic a positive annihilation signal. We contextualize these results with a concrete particle model and show that TRIDENT will be able to probe the most interesting untested parts of parameter space.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_06817
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probing Dark Matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre with TRIDENT
Wang, Yingwei
Chu, Xinhui
Cheek, Andrew
Morton-Blake, Iwan
Chang, Qichao
Giacinti, Gwenael
Kaci, Samy
Xiang, Xin
Xu, Donglian
Zhang, Fuyudi
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Experiment
We determine the future sensitivity of the TRIDENT neutrino telescope to dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre. By applying the full detector design we show that TRIDENT will probe annihilation rates down to $\langleσv\rangle\approx5\times10^{-27}\,{\rm cm}^3\,{\rm s}^{-1}$ for a $10\,{\rm TeV}$ dark matter, which is below the thermal freeze-out benchmark. The analysis is carried out with all-flavour neutrino interactions, where we demonstrate that cascade events, primarily due to $ν_{e,τ}$, show greater sensitivity to a dark matter signal compared to the more commonly studied track events. Furthermore, we highlight the impact of a previously overlooked background, Galactic neutrinos produced from interactions between hadronic cosmic rays and interstellar gas. We find dark matter sensitivities are more strongly degraded in the high energy region above $\sim 10\, {\rm TeV}$, with a maximal weakening of approximately a factor of $\sim 2$. This effect remains smaller than the uncertainty associated with the dark matter density profile but can nonetheless mimic a positive annihilation signal. We contextualize these results with a concrete particle model and show that TRIDENT will be able to probe the most interesting untested parts of parameter space.
title Probing Dark Matter annihilation in the Galactic Centre with TRIDENT
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
High Energy Physics - Experiment
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06817