English

A Brief Review on Dark Matter Annihilation Explanation for $e^\pm$ Excesses in Cosmic Ray

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2010-11-15 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Experiment

Abstract

Recently data from PAMELA, ATIC, FERMI-LAT and HESS show that there are e±e^{\pm} excesses in the cosmic ray energy spectrum. PAMELA observed excesses only in e+e^+, but not in anti-proton spectrum. ATIC, FERMI-LAT and HESS observed excesses in e++ee^++e^- spectrum, but the detailed shapes are different which requires future experimental observations to pin down the correct data set. Nevertheless a lot of efforts have been made to explain the observed e±e^\pm excesses, and also why PAMELA only observed excesses in e+e^+ but not in anti-proton. In this brief review we discuss one of the most popular mechanisms to explain the data, the dark matter annihilation. It has long been known that about 23% of our universe is made of relic dark matter. If the relic dark matter was thermally produced, the annihilation rate is constrained resulting in the need of a large boost factor to explain the data. We will discuss in detail how a large boost factor can be obtained by the Sommerfeld and Briet-Wigner enhancement mechanisms. Some implications for particle physics model buildings will also be discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0908.2908,
  title  = {A Brief Review on Dark Matter Annihilation Explanation for $e^\pm$ Excesses in Cosmic Ray},
  author = {Xiao-Gang He},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.2908},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

22 pages, 6 figures. Several typoes corrected and some references added. Published in Mod. Phys. Lett. A, Vol. 24, No. 27 (2009) pp. 2139-2160