Dark Matter Annihilation Can Produce a Detectable Antihelium Flux through $\bar{\Lambda}_b$ Decays
Abstract
Recent observations by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) have tentatively detected a handful of cosmic-ray antihelium events. Such events have long been considered as smoking-gun evidence for new physics, because astrophysical antihelium production is expected to be negligible. However, the dark-matter-induced antihelium flux is also expected to fall below current sensitivities, particularly in light of existing antiproton constraints. Here, we demonstrate that a previously neglected standard model process -- the production of antihelium through the displaced-vertex decay of -baryons -- can significantly boost the dark matter induced antihelium flux. This process can triple the standard prompt-production of antihelium, and more importantly, entirely dominate the production of the high-energy antihelium nuclei reported by AMS-02.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.16251,
title = {Dark Matter Annihilation Can Produce a Detectable Antihelium Flux through $\bar{\Lambda}_b$ Decays},
author = {Martin Wolfgang Winkler and Tim Linden},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.16251},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures. Appendix adds 3 pages and 2 figures