The Detection of Cold Dark Matter with Neutrino Telescopes

High energy neutrinos are produced by the annihilation of dark matter particles in our galaxy. These are presently searched for with large area, deep underground neutrino telescopes. Cold dark matter particles, trapped inside the sun, are an abundant source of such neutrinos. The realization that astronomy and particle physics have independently developed compelling arguments for new physics at the weak scale may have defined the most important experimental challenge of our time. The existence of cold dark matter particles, interacting weakly with ordinary matter, has been convincingly inferred from a range of astronomical data. It may not be accidental that new particles at the weak scale are also required to revamp Standard Model phenomenology into a consistent theoretical framework where radiative corrections are under control. The lightest stable supersymmetric particle, or neutralino, is an example of such a dark matter candidate. Its mass is bracketed by a minimum value of order a few tens of GeV, determined from unsuccessful accelerator searches, and a maximum value of order 1 TeV imposed by particle physics as well as cosmological constraints. Back-of-the-envelope calculations are sufficient to demonstrate how neutrino telescopes are competitive with existing and future particle colliders such as the LHC in the search for weakly interacting massive cold dark matter particles. We will emphasize that a 1 km area is the natural scale for a future instrument capable of probing the full GeV–TeV mass range of cold dark matter particle candidates by searching for high energy neutrinos produced by their annihilation in the sun. We speculate on what such a detector may look like.