Probing the Dark Matter Capture Rate in a Local Population of Brown Dwarfs with IceCube Gen 2

Abstract

This study explores the potential for dark matter annihilation within brown dwarfs, investigating an unconventional mechanism for neutrino production. Motivated by the efficient accumulation of dark matter particles in brown dwarfs through scattering interactions, we focus on a mass range above 10 GeV, considering dark matter annihilation channels χχ→νν¯νν¯ through long-lived mediators. Using the projected sensitivity of IceCube Generation 2, we assess the detection capability of the local population of brown dwarfs within 20 pc and exclude dark matter-nucleon scattering with cross-sections as low as a few multiples of 10−36cm2.