Related papers: Sub-keV dark matter can strongly ionize molecular …
Sub-GeV dark matter particles can annihilate or decay producing e^\pm pairs which upscatter the low-energy photon fields in the Galaxy and generate an X-ray emission (via the Inverse Compton effect). Using X-ray data from XMM-Newton,…
A numerical calculation of properties of finite absorbers and of intergalactic medium based on photoionization equilibrium is performed to confront alternative UV sources in addition to quasars. It is seen that a spectrum including a large…
Cosmic rays are an important source of heating in the interstellar medium, in particular in dense molecular cloud cores shielded from the external ultraviolet radiation field. The limits placed on the cosmic-ray ionization rate from…
Constraints on the indirect detection of dark matter are usually obtained from observations of astrophysical objects -- the Galactic Center, dwarf galaxies, M31, etc. Here we propose instead to look for the annihilation or decay of dark…
Cold dark matter (CDM) models predict small-scale structure in excess of observations of the cores and abundance of dwarf galaxies. These problems might be solved, and the virtues of CDM models retained, even without postulating {\it ad…
Low-energy cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal and dynamical evolution. The purpose of this work is to explore the possibility that a low-energy component of…
Axions solve the Strong CP Problem and are a cold dark matter candidate. The combined constraints from accelerator searches, stellar evolution limits and cosmology suggest that the axion mass is in the range $3 \cdot 10^{-3} > m_a >…
Cosmic rays are the only agent able to penetrate into the interior of dense molecular clouds. Depositing (part of) their energy through ionisation, cosmic rays play an essential role in determining the physical and chemical evolution of…
In models with dark matter made of particles with keV masses, such as a sterile neutrino, small-scale density perturbations are suppressed, delaying the period at which the lowest mass galaxies are formed and therefore shifting the…
We present updated constraints on 'light' Dark Matter (DM) particles with masses between 1 MeV and 5 GeV. In this range, we can expect DM-produced $e^\pm$ pairs to up-scatter low-energy ambient photons in the Milky Way via the Inverse…
Primordially formed extended dark objects would accrete baryonic matter and impact the ionisation history of the Universe. Insisting on consistency with the anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background, we derive constraints on the dark…
Direct detection strategies are proposed for dark matter particles with MeV to GeV mass. In this largely unexplored mass range, dark matter scattering with electrons can cause single-electron ionization signals, which are detectable with…
We show that light ($\simeq$ 1 -- 30 MeV) dark matter particles can play a significant role in core-collapse supernovae, if they have relatively large annihilation and scattering cross sections, as compared to neutrinos. We find that if…
Dark matter accumulates in the center of the Earth as the planet plows through the dark matter halo in the Milky Way. Possible annihilation of dark matter to Standard Model particles can be probed in indirect dark matter searches. Among…
In the past decade, gamma-ray observations and radio observations put strong constraints on the parameters of dark matter annihilation. In this article, we suggest another robust way to constrain the parameters of dark matter annihilation.…
Dark matter annihilation has been proposed to explain the TeV gamma rays observed from the Galactic Center. We study constraints on this hypothesis coming from the mass profile around the Galactic Center measured by observing stellar…
We demonstrate that dark matter heating of gas clouds hundreds of parsecs from the Milky Way Galactic center provides a powerful new test of dark matter interactions. To illustrate, we set a leading bound on nucleon scattering for 10-100…
Cosmic rays pervade the Galaxy and are thought to be accelerated in supernova shocks. The interaction of cosmic rays with dense interstellar matter has two important effects: 1) high energy (>1 GeV) protons produce {\gamma}-rays by…
Cold interstellar gas clouds provide an exciting new method to discover dark matter. Their immense size makes them uniquely sensitive to interactions from the heaviest, most rarefied dark matter models. Using gas cloud observations, we…
The chemistry of shielded molecular gas is primarily driven by energetic, charged particles dubbed cosmic rays (CRs), in particular those with energies under 1 GeV. CRs ionize molecular hydrogen and helium, the latter of which contributes…