A search for neutralino dark matter with the AMANDA-B10 detector

Abstract: If supersymmetric particles in the form of neutralinos are part of the dark matter halo in our Galaxy, they can accumulate gravitationally in the center of the Earth and pair-wise annihilate therein. Such annihilations can be observed as an excess signal of vertical up-moving neutrino induced muon tracks in a neutrino detector like AMANDA. The Antarctic Muon and Neutrino Detector Array - AMANDA, is an ice-Cherenkov detector located at 1500 m to 2000 m depth in the South Pole glacial ice. Cherenkov photons from muon tracks are detected by photo-multiplier tubes arranged in strings. Data taken in the austral winter of 1997 with a 10 string version of the detector, AMANDA-B10, have been analyzed. The method to extract neutrino candidates from the background of down-going atmospheric muons is presented. 28 up-moving muons which could have their origin in a neutrino interaction below the detector have been found. This flux is compared with simulation of atmospheric neutrinos and of hypothetical neutralino dark matter annihilations in the center of the Earth. No excess above expectations from atmospheric neutrinos have been found. This non-observation of a neutrino flux from neutralino annihilations has been translated to upper limits on the annihilation rate in the center of the Earth and on the neutrino induced muon flux near the detector due to such annihilations