Seminar Talk at CTP-SCU / 理论物理中心学术报告
Speaker: Dr. Jia Liu (刘佳 博士) (Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz 
德国美因茨大学)
Title: Boosted Dark Matter in IceCube and at the Galactic Center
Abstract:
We show that the event excess observed by the IceCube 
collaboration at TeV--PeV
energies, usually interpreted as evidence for 
astrophysical neutrinos, can be
explained alternatively by the scattering of 
highly boosted dark matter
particles. Specifically, we consider a scenario 
where a $\sim 4$~PeV scalar
dark matter particle $\phi$ can decay to a much 
lighter dark fermion $\chi$,
which in turn scatters off nuclei in the IceCube 
detector. Besides these
events, which are exclusively shower-like, the model 
also predicts a secondary
population of events at $\mathcal{O}(100\ 
\text{TeV})$ originating from the
3-body decay $\phi \to \chi \bar\chi a$, 
where $a$ is a pseudoscalar which
mediates dark matter--Standard Model 
interactions and whose decay products
include neutrinos.  This secondary 
population also includes track-like events,
and both populations together 
provide an excellent fit to the IceCube data.  We
then argue that a relic 
abundance of light Dark Matter particles $\chi$, which
may constitute a 
subdominant component of the Dark Matter in the Universe, can
have exactly 
the right properties to explain the observed excess in GeV gamma
rays from 
the galactic center region.
Time: 6/11 (Thu) 4:00pm 
Venue: Physics building 323, CTP-SCU