pith. sign in

arxiv: 1907.11926 · v1 · pith:F2BMBQDYnew · submitted 2019-07-27 · ✦ hep-ph

Potential Dark Matter Signals at Neutrino Telescopes

Marco Chianese This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-24 14:43 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ✦ hep-ph
keywords dark matterneutrino telescopesIceCubeANTARESneutrino flux excessangular distributionhigh-energy neutrinosdirectional analysis
0
0 comments X

The pith

Low-energy neutrino excess from IceCube and ANTARES is tested for dark matter signals via arrival directions.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

Analyses of diffuse TeV-PeV neutrinos reveal tension between IceCube data samples that favors a two-component flux over a single power law, with a clear excess appearing between 40 and 200 TeV. The same excess shows up in ANTARES observations, prompting a combined examination of both datasets. This work updates an earlier angular study by taking the six-year IceCube High-Energy Starting Events sample restricted to the excess band and statistically comparing its arrival directions against the sky patterns predicted by several dark matter neutrino production scenarios. A sympathetic reader would care because a match would point to a non-astrophysical origin for part of the high-energy neutrino sky.

Core claim

The paper carries out a combined IceCube-ANTARES analysis that confirms the presence of the low-energy excess and updates the directional test of dark matter by comparing the arrival directions of the six-year excess events to the angular distributions expected for different dark matter neutrino signals.

What carries the argument

Statistical comparison between observed arrival directions of low-energy excess events and angular distributions predicted by dark matter neutrino signals.

If this is right

  • The tension between data samples supports a two-component neutrino flux rather than a single steep power law.
  • The shared excess range in IceCube and ANTARES data is consistent with a common origin that could be dark matter.
  • Angular information from six years of events supplies an independent test that can separate a dark matter component from isotropic astrophysical flux.
  • Different dark matter models produce distinguishable directional patterns that can be confronted with the observed excess events.
  • Consistency between the two experiments tightens the case that the excess is physical rather than detector-specific.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Confirmation of a directional match would allow extraction of rough mass and annihilation-channel constraints on the responsible dark matter particle.
  • The same directional test could be applied to other candidate exotic sources once their predicted angular patterns are calculated.
  • If the excess survives in future data releases, dedicated follow-up analyses at other neutrino observatories would become warranted.
  • A null result in the directional test would push explanations of the excess back toward conventional astrophysical modeling.

Load-bearing premise

The 40-200 TeV excess is not produced by unmodeled astrophysical sources or instrumental effects.

What would settle it

A larger IceCube or ANTARES sample in which the arrival directions of events in the 40-200 TeV band show no statistical preference for any tested dark matter angular distribution over an isotropic background.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 1907.11926 by Marco Chianese.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Tension of neutrino data with a single power-law flux. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p004_1.png] view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Angular directions of the 6-year HESE neutrino events between 60 and 160 TeV. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p005_2.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

Recent analyses of the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux highlight a tension between different Ice-Cube data samples that strongly suggests a two-component scenario rather than a single steep power-law flux. Such a tension is further strengthened once the latest ANTARES data are also taken into account. Remarkably, both experiments show an excess in the same energy range (40-200 TeV), whose origin could intriguingly be related to dark matter. In this paper, I discuss the combined analysis of IceCube and ANTARES data, highlighting the presence of the low-energy excess. Moreover, I update the results of the angular analysis for potential dark matter signals, previously obtained with the 4-year High-Energy Starting Events data. In particular, I statistically compare the distribution of the arrival directions of 6-year IceCube events belonging to the low-energy excess with the angular distributions expected in case of different dark matter neutrino signals.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 1 minor

Summary. The paper identifies tensions between IceCube data samples and ANTARES data in the diffuse TeV-PeV neutrino flux, suggesting a two-component scenario with an excess in the 40-200 TeV range potentially attributable to dark matter. It performs a combined analysis highlighting this excess and updates the prior 4-year High-Energy Starting Events angular analysis using 6-year IceCube events in the low-energy excess, statistically comparing their arrival directions to angular distributions expected from various dark matter neutrino signals.

Significance. If the 40-200 TeV excess is physical and not due to systematics or unmodeled astrophysics, the directional test with 6-year data offers a concrete, falsifiable check on dark matter interpretations that builds directly on the 4-year results. The data-driven approach with external model templates is a strength, as is the explicit update to a larger event sample.

major comments (2)
  1. [Abstract / Introduction] Abstract and introductory discussion of the tension: the claim that the IceCube-ANTARES discrepancy 'strongly suggests a two-component scenario' and that the excess 'could intriguingly be related to dark matter' is presented without a quantitative significance (e.g., p-value or likelihood ratio) or systematic error budget for event selection, energy reconstruction, or atmospheric backgrounds in the 40-200 TeV window; this assumption is load-bearing for motivating the dark matter angular analysis.
  2. [Angular analysis section] Section on the angular analysis of the low-energy excess: the statistical comparison of arrival directions does not quantify how an unmodeled astrophysical component (or instrumental effect) localized to 40-200 TeV could produce or remove the reported directional tension, leaving the dark matter interpretation vulnerable to the weakest assumption identified in the stress test.
minor comments (1)
  1. [Abstract] The abstract would be clearer if it stated the precise statistical test (e.g., Kolmogorov-Smirnov or likelihood ratio) used for the directional comparison and the number of events in the 6-year low-energy sample.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the careful review and useful comments on our manuscript. We respond to each major comment below, indicating the revisions that will be incorporated.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Abstract / Introduction] Abstract and introductory discussion of the tension: the claim that the IceCube-ANTARES discrepancy 'strongly suggests a two-component scenario' and that the excess 'could intriguingly be related to dark matter' is presented without a quantitative significance (e.g., p-value or likelihood ratio) or systematic error budget for event selection, energy reconstruction, or atmospheric backgrounds in the 40-200 TeV window; this assumption is load-bearing for motivating the dark matter angular analysis.

    Authors: We agree that a quantitative assessment strengthens the motivation. In the revised manuscript we will add a likelihood-ratio comparison of single power-law versus two-component models fitted to the combined IceCube and ANTARES data in the relevant energy range, together with a concise discussion of the dominant systematic uncertainties (event selection, energy scale, and atmospheric background modeling) that affect the 40-200 TeV window. The language will be adjusted to reflect the resulting significance. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Angular analysis section] Section on the angular analysis of the low-energy excess: the statistical comparison of arrival directions does not quantify how an unmodeled astrophysical component (or instrumental effect) localized to 40-200 TeV could produce or remove the reported directional tension, leaving the dark matter interpretation vulnerable to the weakest assumption identified in the stress test.

    Authors: The angular test compares the observed directions of the selected low-energy events against DM-derived templates; any additional component whose spatial distribution differs from the DM expectation would alter the test statistic. Because the origin and sky distribution of such a component are unknown, a model-independent quantification is not possible without introducing further assumptions. We will add an explicit caveat in the discussion section stating this limitation and noting that the test remains falsifiable: inconsistency with the DM angular template would disfavor the DM interpretation regardless of the component's nature. revision: partial

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity: empirical angular comparison uses external DM templates on new data

full rationale

The paper performs a statistical comparison of 6-year IceCube event directions in the 40-200 TeV excess against angular distributions from dark matter neutrino signals. These signal templates are taken from external models, not derived or fitted within the paper. The update to prior 4-year results is a straightforward re-analysis with additional data and does not involve any self-definitional equations, fitted inputs renamed as predictions, or load-bearing self-citations that reduce the central claim to its own inputs by construction. The analysis remains data-driven and self-contained against external benchmarks.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

1 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

The central interpretation rests on the assumption that the excess is dark-matter-related rather than astrophysical, plus standard halo profiles and annihilation channels taken from prior literature.

free parameters (1)
  • dark matter mass and annihilation cross-section
    Parameters implicit in the signal templates used for angular comparison.
axioms (1)
  • domain assumption The neutrino excess originates from dark matter rather than other sources
    Invoked to motivate the angular analysis of the low-energy events.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5676 in / 1024 out tokens · 22616 ms · 2026-05-24T14:43:13.419423+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

38 extracted references · 38 canonical work pages · 36 internal anchors

  1. [1]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], arXiv:1710.01191

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv

  2. [2]

    The ANTARES Collaboration: Contributions to ICRC 2017 Part I: Neutrino astronomy (diffuse fluxes and point sources)

    A. Albert et al. [ANTARES Collaboration], arXiv:1711.01251

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv

  3. [3]

    Opening a New Window onto the Universe with IceCube

    M. Ahlers and F. Halzen, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 102 (2018) 73 [arXiv:1805.11112]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  4. [4]

    The Cumulative Bakground of High-Energy Neutrinos from Starburst Galaxies

    A. Loeb and E. Waxman, JCAP 0605 (2006) 003 [astro-ph/0601695]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2006

  5. [5]

    Testing the Hadronuclear Origin of PeV Neutrinos Observed with IceCube

    K. Murase, M. Ahlers and B. C. Lacki, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) no.12, 121301 [arXiv:1306.3417]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2013

  6. [6]

    Photohadronic Origin of the TeV-PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube

    W. Winter, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) 083007 [arXiv:1307.2793]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2013

  7. [7]

    Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos

    K. Murase, D. Guetta and M. Ahlers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116 (2016) no.7, 071101 [arXiv:1509.00805]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  8. [8]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Science 361 (2018) no.6398, 147 [arXiv:1807.08794]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  9. [9]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube and Fermi-LAT and MAGIC and AGILE and ASAS-SN and HAWC and H.E.S.S. and INTEGRAL and Kanata and Kiso and Kapteyn and Liverpool Telescope and Subaru and Swift NuSTAR and VERITAS and VLA/17B-403 Collaborations], Science361 (2018) no.6398, eaat1378 [arXiv:1807.08816]

    work page arXiv 2018

  10. [10]

    Blazar Flares as an Origin of High-Energy Cosmic Neutrinos?

    K. Murase, F. Oikonomou and M. Petropoulou, Astrophys. J. 865 (2018) no.2, 124 [arXiv:1807.04748]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  11. [11]

    First combined search for neutrino point-sources in the Southern Hemisphere with the ANTARES and IceCube neutrino telescopes

    S. Adrian-Martinez et al. [ANTARES and IceCube Collaborations], Astrophys. J. 823 (2016) no.1, 65 [arXiv:1511.02149]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  12. [12]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Astrophys. J. 835 (2017) no.2, 151 [arXiv:1609.04981]. 6 Potential Dark Matter Signals at Neutrino Telescopes Marco Chianese

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  13. [13]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Phys. Rev. Lett. 122 (2019) no.5, 051102 [arXiv:1807.11492]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2019

  14. [14]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Eur. Phys. J. C 79 (2019) no.3, 234 [arXiv:1811.07979]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2019

  15. [15]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Astropart. Phys. 66 (2015) 39 [arXiv:1408.0634]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2015

  16. [16]

    S. Ando, M. R. Feyereisen and M. Fornasa, Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) no.10, 103003 [arXiv:1701.02165]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  17. [17]

    Detection prospects for high energy neutrino sources from the anisotropic matter distribution in the local universe

    P. Mertsch, M. Rameez and I. Tamborra, JCAP 1703 (2017) no.03, 011 [arXiv:1612.07311]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  18. [18]

    Angular power spectrum analysis on current and future high-energy neutrino data

    A. Dekker and S. Ando, JCAP 1902 (2019) 002 [arXiv:1811.02576]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 1902

  19. [19]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Astrophys. J. 809 (2015) no.1, 98 [arXiv:1507.03991]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2015

  20. [20]

    C. Y . Chen, P. S. Bhupal Dev and A. Soni, Phys. Rev. D92 (2015) no.7, 073001 [arXiv:1411.5658]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2015

  21. [21]

    A. C. Vincent, S. Palomares-Ruiz and O. Mena, Phys. Rev. D 94 (2016) no.2, 023009 [arXiv:1605.01556]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  22. [22]

    On the IceCube spectral anomaly

    A. Palladino, M. Spurio and F. Vissani, JCAP 1612 (2016) no.12, 045 [arXiv:1610.07015]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  23. [23]

    A Multi-Component Model for the Observed Astrophysical Neutrinos

    A. Palladino and W. Winter, Astron. Astrophys. 615 (2018) A168 [arXiv:1801.07277]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  24. [24]

    Use of ANTARES and IceCube data to constrain a single power-law neutrino flux

    M. Chianese, R. Mele, G. Miele, P. Migliozzi and S. Morisi, Astrophys. J. 851 (2017) no.1, 36 [arXiv:1707.05168]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  25. [25]

    Low energy IceCube data and a possible Dark Matter related excess

    M. Chianese, G. Miele, S. Morisi and E. Vitagliano, Phys. Lett. B 757 (2016) 251 [arXiv:1601.02934]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  26. [26]

    Dark Matter interpretation of low energy IceCube MESE excess

    M. Chianese, G. Miele and S. Morisi, JCAP 1701 (2017) no.01, 007 [arXiv:1610.04612]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  27. [27]

    Interpreting IceCube 6-year HESE data as an evidence for hundred TeV decaying Dark Matter

    M. Chianese, G. Miele and S. Morisi, Phys. Lett. B 773 (2017) 591 [arXiv:1707.05241]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  28. [28]

    Neutrinos at IceCube from Heavy Decaying Dark Matter

    B. Feldstein, A. Kusenko, S. Matsumoto and T. T. Yanagida, Phys. Rev. D 88 (2013) no.1, 015004 [arXiv:1303.7320]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2013

  29. [29]

    Are IceCube neutrinos unveiling PeV-scale decaying dark matter?

    A. Esmaili and P. D. Serpico, JCAP 1311 (2013) 054 [arXiv:1308.1105]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2013

  30. [30]

    IceCube events and decaying dark matter: hints and constraints

    A. Esmaili, S. K. Kang and P. D. Serpico, JCAP 1412 (2014) no.12, 054 [arXiv:1410.5979]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2014

  31. [31]

    Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube

    K. Murase, R. Laha, S. Ando and M. Ahlers, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115 (2015) no.7, 071301 [arXiv:1503.04663]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2015

  32. [32]

    S. M. Boucenna, M. Chianese, G. Mangano, G. Miele, S. Morisi, O. Pisanti and E. Vitagliano, JCAP 1512, no. 12, 055 (2015) [arXiv:1507.01000]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2015

  33. [33]

    Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal

    P. Di Bari, P. O. Ludl and S. Palomares-Ruiz, JCAP 1611 (2016) no.11, 044 [arXiv:1606.06238]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2016

  34. [34]

    Probing decaying heavy dark matter with the 4-year IceCube HESE data

    A. Bhattacharya, A. Esmaili, S. Palomares-Ruiz and I. Sarcevic, JCAP 1707 (2017) no.07, 027 [arXiv:1706.05746]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017

  35. [35]

    M. G. Aartsen et al. [IceCube Collaboration], Eur. Phys. J. C 78 (2018) no.10, 831 [arXiv:1804.03848]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  36. [36]

    Neutrinophilic Dark Matter in the epoch of IceCube and Fermi-LAT

    M. Chianese, G. Miele, S. Morisi and E. Peinado, JCAP 1812 (2018) no.12, 016 [arXiv:1808.02486]

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2018

  37. [37]

    Bhattacharya, A

    A. Bhattacharya, A. Esmaili, S. Palomares-Ruiz and I. Sarcevic, JCAP 1905 (2019) no.05, 051 [arXiv:1903.12623]

    work page arXiv 1905

  38. [38]

    Gamma-ray Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter and Implications for IceCube

    T. Cohen, K. Murase, N. L. Rodd, B. R. Safdi and Y . Soreq, Phys. Rev. Lett.119 (2017) no.2, 021102 [arXiv:1612.05638]. 7

    work page internal anchor Pith review Pith/arXiv arXiv 2017