Dark Matter interpretations of the e± excesses after FERMI

Patrick Meade, Michele Papucci, Alessandro Strumia, Tomer Volansky*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The cosmic-ray excess observed by PAMELA in the positron fraction and by FERMI and HESS in e- + e+ can be interpreted in terms of DM annihilations or decays into leptonic final states. Final states into τ's or 4μ give the best-fit to the excess. However, in the annihilation scenario, they are incompatible with photon and neutrino constraints, unless DM has a quasi-constant density profile. Final states involving e's are less constrained but poorly fit the excess, unless hidden sector radiation makes their energy spectrum smoother, allowing a fit to all the data with a combination of leptonic modes. In general, DM lighter than about a TeV cannot fit the excesses, so PAMELA should find a greater positron fraction at higher energies. The DM interpretation can be tested by FERMI γ observations above 10 GeV: if the e± excess is everywhere in the DM halo, Inverse Compton scattering on ambient light produces a well-predicted γ excess that FERMI should soon detect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)178-203
Number of pages26
JournalNuclear Physics B
Volume831
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 21 May 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Dark Matter
  • FERMI
  • PAMELA

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