G. Lambard

Dark matter searches with the ANTARES neutrino telescope: constraints to CMSSM and mUED models

ANTARES is the largest neutrino telescope Northern hemisphere. It consists of a threedimensional array of 885 photomultipliers to collect the Cherenkov light induced by relativistic muons produced in CC interactions of high energy neutrinos. One of the main scientific goals of the experiment is the search for dark matter. We present here the analysis of the recently unblinded data taken during 2007 and 2008 to look for a WIMP signal in the Sun. WIMPs are one of the most popular scenarios to explain the dark matter content of the Universe. They would accumulate in massive objects like the Sun or the Galactic Center and their self-annihilation would produce (directly or indirectly) high energy neutrinos detectable by neutrino telescopes. Contrary to other indirect searches (like with gamma rays or positrons), the search for neutrinos in the Sun is free from other astrophysical contributions, so the explanation of a potential signal in terms of dark matter would be much more robust. The results are interpreted within two theoretical frameworks: CMSSM and mUED.

Indirect searches for Dark Matter with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

The results of a search for high-energy neutrinos coming from the direction of the Sun using the data recorded by the ANTARES neutrino telescope during 2007 and 2008 are presented. The number of neutrinos observed is found to be compatible with background expectations and upper limits for the spin-dependent and spin-independent WIMP-proton cross-sections are derived and compared to predictions of the CMSSM. These limits are comparable to those obtained by other neutrino telescopes and are more stringent than those obtained by direct search experiments for the spin-dependent WIMP-proton cross-section assuming the self-annihilation proceeds through hard channels, i.e. via W + W and t + t .