English

Astrophysical Signatures of Secluded Dark Matter

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2010-04-28 v2 Astrophysics

Abstract

We analyze the indirect astrophysical signatures of secluded models of WIMP dark matter, characterized by a weak-scale rate for annihilation into light MeV-scale mediators which are metastable to decay into Standard Model states. Such scenarios allow a significant enhancement of the annihilation cross section in the galactic halo relative to its value at freeze-out, particularly when the mediator is light enough for this process to proceed through radiative capture to a metastable `WIMP-onium' bound state. For MeV-scale vector mediators charged under a hidden U(1)' gauge group, the enhanced annihilation rate leads predominantly to a sizable excess positron flux, even in the absence of astrophysical boost factors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.1502,
  title  = {Astrophysical Signatures of Secluded Dark Matter},
  author = {Maxim Pospelov and Adam Ritz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.1502},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

15 pages, 2 figures; v2: references added