Loop-induced dark matter direct detection signals from gamma-ray lines
Abstract
Improved limits as well as tentative claims for dark matter annihilation into gamma-ray lines have been presented recently. We study the direct detection cross section induced from dark matter annihilation into two photons in a model-independent fashion, assuming no additional couplings between dark matter and nuclei. We find a striking non-standard recoil spectrum due to different destructively interfering contributions to the dark matter nucleus scattering cross section. While in the case of s-wave annihilation the current sensitivity of direct detection experiments is insufficient to compete with indirect detection searches, for p-wave annihilation the constraints from direct searches are comparable. This will allow to test dark matter scenarios with p-wave annihilation that predict a large di-photon annihilation cross section in the next generation of experiments.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1207.3971,
title = {Loop-induced dark matter direct detection signals from gamma-ray lines},
author = {Mads T. Frandsen and Ulrich Haisch and Felix Kahlhoefer and Philipp Mertsch and Kai Schmidt-Hoberg},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1207.3971},
year = {2012}
}
Comments
19 pages, 5 figures. v2: new XENON100 results included, references added. v3: matches published version