[en] Transfer of ¹³⁷Cs from soil to plants was studied in two types of soil: sandy soil (I) and sandy loam soil (II). The study was performed on an experimental field for of 1991 (soil I) and for 1992-93 (soil II). Transfer of ¹³⁷Cs from soil I was examined for spring barley, spring wheat, red beet, lettuce and kale; transfer from soil II was examined for winter barley, grass, alfalfa, potato tubers, red beet, radish, bean, spinach and lettuce. ¹³⁷Cs and potassium in plants and soil were determined using gamma spectrometry. The soils were characterized by particle size distribution and such chemical properties as pH_H2O, pH_KCl, content of organic matter, Ca, Mg and exchangeable K. The concentration of ¹³⁷Cs in the soil I was over five times lower than in soil II, being equal to 8.84±0.32 Bq kg^-1 and 50.38±2.21 Bq kg^-1, respectively. The soils differ in their chemical characteristics and texture. Soil I contains 6.47±0.21 g kg^-1 potassium, 0.147±0.015 g kg^-1 exchangeable potassium, 2.21±0.32 g kg^-1 Ca, 0.055±0.013 g kg^-1 Mg and 1.733% organic matter. Soil II contains 10.87±0.22 g kg^-1 potassium, 0.082±0.007 g kg^-1 exchangeable potassium, 1.62±0.16 g kg^-1 Ca, 0.097±0.009 g kg^-1 Mg and 2.307% organic matter; pH_H2O of soil I was equal to 7.40 and of soil II - 6.56. The lowest concentrations of ¹³⁷Cs for both soils were observed in cereals (spring wheat - 0.67±0.06 Bq kg^-1_dw and spring barley - 0.33± Bq kg^-1_dw for soil I and winter barley - 0.79±0.20 Bq kg^-1_dw for soil II). The highest concentrations of this isotope were found in red beet leaves (9.11±1.38 Bq kg^-1_dw for soil I and 16.44±1.14 Bq kg^-1_dw for soil II). Transfer of ¹³⁷Cs to plants from the sandy loam soil was from about 2 up to about 7 times lower than from the sandy soil. The lower transfer of ¹³⁷Cs from soil II to plants in comparison to soil I might be associated with the presence of clay which binds Cs strongly. The strong binding of Cs in soil II can also be inferred from the lower concentration of exchangeable potassium in it. (author)

[en] We present the results of the first IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in the center of the Earth. Weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), candidates for dark matter, can scatter off nuclei inside the Earth and fall below its escape velocity. Over time the captured WIMPs will be accumulated and may eventually self-annihilate. Among the annihilation products only neutrinos can escape from the center of the Earth. Large-scale neutrino telescopes, such as the cubic kilometer IceCube Neutrino Observatory located at the South Pole, can be used to search for such neutrino fluxes. Data from 327 days of detector livetime during 2011/2012 were analyzed. No excess beyond the expected background from atmospheric neutrinos was detected. The derived upper limits on the annihilation rate of WIMPs in the Earth and the resulting muon flux are an order of magnitude stronger than the limits of the last analysis performed with data from IceCube's predecessor AMANDA. The limits can be translated in terms of a spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross section. For a WIMP mass of 50 GeV this analysis results in the most restrictive limits achieved with IceCube data. (orig.)

[en] The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a large Cherenkov detector instrumenting 1 km³ of Antarctic ice. The detector can be used to search for signatures of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we describe the search for non-relativistic, magnetic monopoles as remnants of the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) era shortly after the Big Bang. Depending on the underlying gauge group these monopoles may catalyze the decay of nucleons via the Rubakov-Callan effect with a cross section suggested to be in the range of 10^-27 to 10^-21 cm². In IceCube, the Cherenkov light from nucleon decays along the monopole trajectory would produce a characteristic hit pattern. This paper presents the results of an analysis of first data taken from May 2011 until May 2012 with a dedicated slow particle trigger for DeepCore, a subdetector of IceCube. A second analysis provides better sensitivity for the brightest non-relativistic monopoles using data taken from May 2009 until May 2010. In both analyses no monopole signal was observed. For catalysis cross sections of 10^-22 (10^-24) cm² the flux of non-relativistic GUT monopoles is constrained up to a level of Φ₉₀ ≤ 10^-18 (10^-17) cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 at a 90 % confidence level, which is three orders of magnitude below the Parker bound. The limits assume a dominant decay of the proton into a positron and a neutral pion. These results improve the current best experimental limits by one to two orders of magnitude, for a wide range of assumed speeds and catalysis cross sections. (orig.)

[en] With the observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, interest has risen in models of PeV-mass decaying dark matter particles to explain the observed flux. We present two dedicated experimental analyses to test this hypothesis. One analysis uses 6 years of IceCube data focusing on muon neutrino 'track' events from the Northern Hemisphere, while the second analysis uses 2 years of 'cascade' events from the full sky. Known background components and the hypothetical flux from unstable dark matter are fitted to the experimental data. Since no significant excess is observed in either analysis, lower limits on the lifetime of dark matter particles are derived: we obtain the strongest constraint to date, excluding lifetimes shorter than 10²⁸ s at 90% CL for dark matter masses above 10 TeV. (orig.)

[en] The Milky Way is expected to be embedded in a halo of dark matter particles, with the highest density in the central region, and decreasing density with the halo-centric radius. Dark matter might be indirectly detectable at Earth through a flux of stable particles generated in dark matter annihilations and peaked in the direction of the Galactic Center. We present a search for an excess flux of muon (anti-) neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center using the cubic-kilometer-sized IceCube neutrino detector at the South Pole. There, the Galactic Center is always seen above the horizon. Thus, new and dedicated veto techniques against atmospheric muons are required to make the southern hemisphere accessible for IceCube. We used 319.7 live-days of data from IceCube operating in its 79-string configuration during 2010 and 2011. No neutrino excess was found and the final result is compatible with the background. We present upper limits on the self-annihilation cross-section, left angle σ_A right angle, for WIMP masses ranging from 30 GeV up to 10 TeV, assuming cuspy (NFW) and flat-cored (Burkert) dark matter halo profiles, reaching down to ≅ 4 . 10"-"2"4 cm"3s"-"1, and ≅ 2.6 . 10"-"2"3 cm"3s"-"1 for the νanti ν channel, respectively. (orig.)

[en] Dark matter which is bound in the Galactic halo might self-annihilate and produce a flux of stable final state particles, e.g. high energy neutrinos. These neutrinos can be detected with IceCube, a cubic-kilometer sized Cherenkov detector. Given IceCube's large field of view, a characteristic anisotropy of the additional neutrino flux is expected. In this paper we describe a multipole method to search for such a large-scale anisotropy in IceCube data. This method uses the expansion coefficients of a multipole expansion of neutrino arrival directions and incorporates signal-specific weights for each expansion coefficient. We apply the technique to a high-purity muon neutrino sample from the Northern Hemisphere. The final result is compatible with the nullhypothesis. As no signal was observed, we present limits on the self-annihilation cross-section averaged over the relative velocity distribution left angle σ_Aυ right angle down to 1.9 x 10^-23 cm³ s^-1 for a dark matter particle mass of 700-1,000 GeV and direct annihilation into ν anti ν. The resulting exclusion limits come close to exclusion limits from γ-ray experiments, that focus on the outer Galactic halo, for high dark matter masses of a few TeV and hard annihilation channels. (orig.)

[en] Various extensions of the Standard Model motivate the existence of stable magnetic monopoles that could have been created during an early high-energy epoch of the Universe. These primordial magnetic monopoles would be gradually accelerated by cosmic magnetic fields and could reach high velocities that make them visible in Cherenkov detectors such as IceCube. Equivalently to electrically charged particles, magnetic monopoles produce direct and indirect Cherenkov light while traversing through matter at relativistic velocities. This paper describes searches for relativistic (v ≥ 0.76 c) and mildly relativistic (v ≥ 0.51 c) monopoles, each using one year of data taken in 2008/2009 and 2011/2012, respectively. No monopole candidate was detected. For a velocity above 0.51 c the monopole flux is constrained down to a level of 1.55 x 10"-"1"8 cm"-"2 s"-"1 sr"-"1. This is an improvement of almost two orders of magnitude over previous limits. (orig.)

[en] IceCube is a neutrino observatory deployed in the glacial ice at the geographic South Pole. The ν_μ energy unfolding described in this paper is based on data taken with IceCube in its 79-string configuration. A sample of muon neutrino charged-current interactions with a purity of 99.5% was selected by means of a multivariate classification process based on machine learning. The subsequent unfolding was performed using the software Truee. The resulting spectrum covers an E_ν-range of more than four orders of magnitude from 125 GeV to 3.2 PeV. Compared to the Honda atmospheric neutrino flux model, the energy spectrum shows an excess of more than 1.9σ in four adjacent bins for neutrino energies E_ν ≥ 177.8 TeV. The obtained spectrum is fully compatible with previous measurements of the atmospheric neutrino flux and recent IceCube measurements of a flux of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. (orig.)

[en] We present results from an analysis looking for dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the IceCube neutrino telescope. Gravitationally trapped dark matter in the Sun's core can annihilate into Standard Model particles making the Sun a source of GeV neutrinos. IceCube is able to detect neutrinos with energies >100 GeV while its low-energy infill array DeepCore extends this to >10 GeV. This analysis uses data gathered in the austral winters between May 2011 and May 2014, corresponding to 532 days of live time when the Sun, being below the horizon, is a source of up-going neutrino events, easiest to discriminate against the dominant background of atmospheric muons. The sensitivity is a factor of two to four better than previous searches due to additional statistics and improved analysis methods involving better background rejection and reconstructions. The resultant upper limits on the spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering cross section reach down to 1.46 x 10"-"5 pb for a dark matter particle of mass 500 GeV annihilating exclusively into τ"+τ"- particles. These are currently the most stringent limits on the spin-dependent dark matter-proton scattering cross section for WIMP masses above 50 GeV. (orig.)

[en] We present a search for a neutrino signal from dark matter self-annihilations in the Milky Way using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (IceCube). In 1005 days of data we found no significant excess of neutrinos over the background of neutrinos produced in atmospheric air showers from cosmic ray interactions. We derive upper limits on the velocity averaged product of the dark matter self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the dark matter particles left angle σ_Av right angle. Upper limits are set for dark matter particle candidate masses ranging from 10 GeV up to 1 TeV while considering annihilation through multiple channels. This work sets the most stringent limit on a neutrino signal from dark matter with mass between 10 and 100 GeV, with a limit of 1.18 . 10"-"2"3 cm"3s"-"1 for 100 GeV dark matter particles self-annihilating via τ"+τ"- to neutrinos (assuming the Navarro-Frenk-White dark matter halo profile). (orig.)