skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Model-independent indirect detection constraints on hidden sector dark matter

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

If dark matter inhabits an expanded ``hidden sector'', annihilations may proceed through sequential decays or multi-body final states. We map out the potential signals and current constraints on such a framework in indirect searches, using a model-independent setup based on multi-step hierarchical cascade decays. While remaining agnostic to the details of the hidden sector model, our framework captures the generic broadening of the spectrum of secondary particles (photons, neutrinos, e+e- and $$\overline{p}$$ p) relative to the case of direct annihilation to Standard Model particles. We explore how indirect constraints on dark matter annihilation limit the parameter space for such cascade/multi-particle decays. We investigate limits from the cosmic microwave background by Planck, the Fermi measurement of photons from the dwarf galaxies, and positron data from AMS-02. The presence of a hidden sector can change the constraints on the dark matter by up to an order of magnitude in either direction (although the effect can be much smaller). We find that generally the bound from the Fermi dwarfs is most constraining for annihilations to photon-rich final states, while AMS-02 is most constraining for electron and muon final states; however in certain instances the CMB bounds overtake both, due to their approximate independence on the details of the hidden sector cascade. We provide the full set of cascade spectra considered here as publicly available code with examples at http://web.mit.edu/lns/research/CascadeSpectra.html.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0013999; SC00012567
OSTI ID:
1436984
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1248472
Report Number(s):
MIT-CTP/4742; DE−SC00012567; TRN: US1900259
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 06; ISSN 1475-7516
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 89 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (125)

The Cosmic‐Ray Antiproton Flux between 3 and 49 GeV journal November 2001
Constraints on dark Matter Annihilation in Clusters of Galaxies from Diffuse Radio Emission journal April 2013
Antiprotons from Spallations of Cosmic Rays on Interstellar Matter journal December 2001
Galactic center gamma-ray excess through a dark shower journal February 2015
Pulsars as the sources of high energy cosmic ray positrons journal January 2009
Precision Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Spectrum journal February 2000
Dark matter through the axion portal journal April 2009
Stringent constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section from the region of the Galactic Center journal June 2013
Possibility of Testing the Light Dark Matter Hypothesis with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer journal January 2013
A theory of dark matter journal January 2009
A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering journal December 1997
n-particle phase space in terms of invariant momentum transfers journal March 1969
SEARCH FOR GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM DES DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY CANDIDATES WITH FERMI -LAT DATA journal August 2015
Solar Modulation of Galactic Cosmic Rays journal November 1968
CMB photons shedding light on dark matter journal December 2012
Secluded WIMP dark matter journal April 2008
Electron and Positron Fluxes in Primary Cosmic Rays Measured with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station journal September 2014
Dark matter and pulsar model constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT gamma-ray observations journal October 2013
Fitting the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess with cascade annihilations journal November 2014
High Statistics Measurement of the Positron Fraction in Primary Cosmic Rays of 0.5–500 GeV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station journal September 2014
Cosmic ray nuclei, antiprotons and gamma rays in the galaxy: a new diffusion model journal October 2008
Detection of a gamma-ray source in the Galactic Center consistent with extended emission from dark matter annihilation and concentrated astrophysical emission journal October 2012
Dark matter annihilation in the Galactic Center as seen by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope journal March 2011
Secondary Antiprotons and Propagation of Cosmic Rays in the Galaxy and Heliosphere journal January 2002
Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation from Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with Six Years of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data journal November 2015
Phenomenology of dark matter annihilation into a long-lived intermediate state journal July 2009
Multimediator models for the Galactic Center gamma ray excess journal June 2015
WMAP7 and future CMB constraints on annihilating dark matter: implications for GeV-scale WIMPs journal October 2011
Deriving the Global Structure of the Galactic Magnetic Field from Faraday Rotation Measures of Extragalactic Sources journal August 2011
Astrophysical and dark matter interpretations of extended gamma-ray emission from the Galactic Center journal July 2014
PPPC 4 DM ID: a poor particle physicist cookbook for dark matter indirect detection journal March 2011
Eight new Milky way Companions Discovered in First-Year dark Energy Survey data journal June 2015
Secluded dark matter coupled to a hidden CFT journal August 2012
Search for dark matter annihilation signatures in H.E.S.S. observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies journal December 2014
Antiprotons from Dark Matter: current constraints and future sensitivities journal April 2013
Addendum including AMS 2013 data to “Model-independent implications of the e ± , p ¯ cosmic ray spectra on properties of Dark Matter” [Nucl. Phys. B 813 (1–2) (2009) 1–21] journal August 2013
Updated CMB constraints on dark matter annihilation cross sections journal July 2011
Secondary antiprotons as a Galactic Dark Matter probe journal December 2015
Phenomenology of hidden valleys at hadron colliders journal July 2008
Perspectives for indirect dark matter search with AMS-2 using cosmic-ray electrons and positrons journal October 2009
A comment on the emission from the Galactic Center as seen by the Fermi telescope journal November 2011
Indication of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II journal August 2015
On The gamma-ray emission from Reticulum II and other dwarf galaxies journal September 2015
Dark matter annihilations and decays after the AMS-02 positron measurements journal March 2014
Origin of the gamma rays from the Galactic Center journal December 2011
FERMI -LAT OBSERVATIONS OF HIGH-ENERGY γ -RAY EMISSION TOWARD THE GALACTIC CENTER journal February 2016
Hidden on-shell mediators for the Galactic Center γ -ray excess journal August 2014
Origin of the Positron Excess in Cosmic Rays journal July 2009
Measurement of the flux of primary cosmic ray antiprotons with energies of 60 MeV to 350 GeV in the PAMELA experiment journal January 2013
Interaction between Four Half-Spin Particles and the Decay of the  -Meson journal May 1950
Unified interpretation of cosmic ray nuclei and antiproton recent measurements journal December 2010
Higgs portal vector dark matter for GeV scale γ-ray excess from galactic center journal September 2014
Dark matter signals from cascade annihilations journal May 2009
New Limits on Dark Matter Annihilation from Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer Cosmic Ray Positron Data journal October 2013
Dark forces and light dark matter journal September 2012
Hidden sector dark matter models for the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess journal July 2014
Improved phase space treatment of massive multi-particle final states journal February 2005
Heavy dark matter through the Higgs portal journal July 2008
Searching for dark matter in the CMB: A compact parametrization of energy injection from new physics journal February 2012
Dissecting cosmic-ray electron-positron data with Occam’s razor: the role of known pulsars journal January 2012
CMB bounds on dark matter annihilation: Nucleon energy losses after recombination journal June 2013
Multistep cascade annihilations of dark matter and the Galactic Center excess journal May 2015
Echoes of a hidden valley at hadron colliders journal August 2007
Two emission mechanisms in the Fermi Bubbles: A possible signal of annihilating dark matter journal September 2013
Muon decay and physics beyond the standard model journal January 2001
Discovery of a new galactic center excess consistent with upscattered starlight journal July 2015
The windows for kinetically mixed Z′-mediated dark matter and the galactic center gamma ray excess journal August 2014
The characterization of the gamma-ray signal from the central Milky Way: A case for annihilating dark matter journal June 2016
Antiprotons from dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy: Astrophysical uncertainties journal June 2012
Modelling the Galactic magnetic field on the plane in two dimensions journal January 2010
Constraints on particle dark matter from cosmic-ray antiprotons journal April 2014
Cosmic signals from the hidden sector journal August 2009
Indirect dark matter signatures in the cosmic dark ages. I. Generalizing the bound on s -wave dark matter annihilation from Planck results journal January 2016
Signals of a light dark force in the galactic center journal August 2015
Constraining the Higgs portal with antiprotons journal March 2015
Evidence for Unresolved γ -Ray Point Sources in the Inner Galaxy journal February 2016
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Discovery of nine Ultra Faint Satellites in the Vicinity of the Magellanic Clouds journal May 2015
Strong Support for the Millisecond Pulsar Origin of the Galactic Center GeV Excess journal February 2016
Measurements of Cosmic-Ray Low-Energy Antiproton and Proton Spectra in a Transient Period of Solar Field Reversal journal January 2002
Indirect dark matter signatures in the cosmic dark ages. II. Ionization, heating, and photon production from arbitrary energy injections journal January 2016
Two U(1)'s and ϵ charge shifts journal January 1986
Cosmic ray electrons, positrons and the synchrotron emission of the Galaxy: consistent analysis and implications journal March 2013
Kinetic mixing and the supersymmetric gauge hierarchy journal May 1997
Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess journal March 2015
Cosmic-Ray Propagation and Interactions in the Galaxy journal November 2007
Dark matter constraints from observations of 25 Milky Way satellite galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope journal February 2014
Limits and confidence intervals in the presence of nuisance parameters
  • Rolke, Wolfgang A.; López, Angel M.; Conrad, Jan
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 551, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2005.05.068
journal October 2005
Search for Gamma-Ray Emission from des Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Candidates with Fermi-Lat data collection January 2015
Interaction between Four Half-Spin Particles and the Decay of the  -Meson journal December 1950
Electron and Positron Fluxes in Primary Cosmic Rays Measured with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station conference March 2016
Indication of Gamma-ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II text January 2018
Indication of Gamma-ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II text January 2015
Secluded WIMP Dark Matter text January 2007
Phenomenology of Hidden Valleys at Hadron Colliders text January 2007
Heavy Dark Matter Through the Higgs Portal text January 2008
Cosmic-Ray Nuclei, Antiprotons and Gamma-rays in the Galaxy: a New Diffusion Model text January 2008
A Theory of Dark Matter text January 2008
Pulsars as the Sources of High Energy Cosmic Ray Positrons text January 2008
Dark Matter through the Axion Portal text January 2008
Phenomenology of Dark Matter annihilation into a long-lived intermediate state text January 2009
Deriving global structure of the Galactic Magnetic Field from Faraday Rotation Measures of extragalactic sources text January 2011
Updated CMB constraints on Dark Matter annihilation cross-sections text January 2011
Searching for Dark Matter in the CMB: A Compact Parameterization of Energy Injection from New Physics text January 2011
Secluded Dark Matter Coupled to a Hidden CFT text January 2012
Detection of a Gamma-Ray Source in the Galactic Center Consistent with Extended Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation and Concentrated Astrophysical Emission text January 2012
Cosmic Ray Electrons, Positrons and the Synchrotron emission of the Galaxy: consistent analysis and implications text January 2012
Antiprotons from Dark Matter: Current constraints and future sensitivities text January 2013
CMB bounds on dark matter annihilation: Nucleon energy-losses after recombination text January 2013
Dark matter annihilations and decays after the AMS-02 positron measurements text January 2013
Constraints on particle dark matter from cosmic-ray antiprotons text January 2013
Astrophysical and Dark Matter Interpretations of Extended Gamma-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center text January 2014
Hidden On-Shell Mediators for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess text January 2014
The windows for kinetically mixed Z'-mediated dark matter and the galactic center gamma ray excess text January 2014
Background model systematics for the Fermi GeV excess text January 2014
Discovery of a New Galactic Center Excess Consistent with Upscattered Starlight text January 2014
Signals of a Light Dark Force in the Galactic Center text January 2014
Constraining the Higgs portal with antiprotons preprint January 2014
Multi-Step Cascade Annihilations of Dark Matter and the Galactic Center Excess text January 2015
On The Gamma-Ray Emission From Reticulum II and Other Dwarf Galaxies text January 2015
Indirect Dark Matter Signatures in the Cosmic Dark Ages I. Generalizing the Bound on s-wave Dark Matter Annihilation from Planck text January 2015
Secondary antiprotons and propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy and heliosphere text January 2001
Cosmic-ray propagation and interactions in the Galaxy text January 2007
Precision Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Antiproton Spectrum text January 1999
Enhanced anti-deuteron Dark Matter signal and the implications of PAMELA journal January 2010
The role of antiprotons and antideuterons in dark matter indirect detection conference June 2014

Cited By (48)

Strongly self-interacting vector dark matter via freeze-in journal January 2018
Leak-in dark matter journal January 2020
Model-independent analysis of the DAMPE excess journal February 2018
Hidden Higgs portal vector dark matter for the Galactic center gamma-ray excess from the two-step cascade annihilation, and muon g − 2 journal August 2018
Spontaneous CP-violating electroweak baryogenesis and dark matter from a complex singlet scalar journal August 2018
Resonance enhancement of dark matter interactions: the case for early kinetic decoupling and velocity dependent resonance width journal September 2017
Coscattering/coannihilation dark matter in a fraternal twin Higgs model journal September 2018
Impeded Dark Matter journal December 2016
Phases of cannibal dark matter journal December 2016
Prospects for indirect dark matter searches with MeV photons journal May 2017
Dark Matter's secret liaisons: phenomenology of a dark U(1) sector with bound states journal May 2017
Point sources from dissipative dark matter journal December 2017
Z ′ mediated WIMPs: dead, dying, or soon to be detected? journal November 2019
Wobbly Dark Matter Signals at Cherenkov Telescopes from Long-Lived Mediator Decays journal May 2019
Asymmetric dark matter: residual annihilations and self-interactions text January 2018
Homeopathic Dark Matter, or how diluted heavy substances produce high energy cosmic rays text January 2019
Dark matter in Hidden Valley models with stable and unstable light dark mesons journal April 2019
Broadening dark matter searches at the LHC: mono-X versus darkonium channels journal October 2018
Homeopathic Dark Matter, or how diluted heavy substances produce high energy cosmic rays journal February 2019
Asymmetric Dark Matter: Residual Annihilations and Self-Interactions text January 2017
Strong constraints on self-interacting dark matter with light mediators text January 2016
Dark matter annihilation feedback in cosmological simulations – II. The influence on gas and halo structure journal February 2019
Strong constraints on self-interacting dark matter with light mediators text January 2016
Dark Matter's secret liaisons: phenomenology of a dark U(1) sector with bound states text January 2016
Prospects for indirect dark matter searches with MeV photons text January 2017
Indirect Detection of Neutrino Portal Dark Matter text January 2017
Resonance enhancement of dark matter interactions: the case for early kinetic decoupling and velocity dependent resonance width text January 2017
Point Sources from Dissipative Dark Matter text January 2017
LHC Searches for Dark Sector Showers text January 2017
Model-independent analysis of the DAMPE excess text January 2017
Asymmetric dark matter: residual annihilations and self-interactions text January 2017
Coscattering/Coannihilation Dark Matter in a Fraternal Twin Higgs Model text January 2018
Spontaneous $CP$-Violating Electroweak Baryogenesis and Dark Matter from a Complex Singlet Scalar text January 2018
Dark matter in Hidden Valley models with stable and unstable light dark mesons text January 2018
$Z'$ Mediated WIMPs: Dead, Dying, or Soon to be Detected? text January 2019
Searching for dark photon dark matter with cosmic ray antideuterons journal May 2020
A tale of two portals: testing light, hidden new physics at future e + e − colliders journal June 2017
Dark matter self-interactions from a general spin-0 mediator journal August 2017
Hidden sector dark matter and the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess: a closer look journal November 2017
Suppressed flavor violation in lepton flavored dark matter from an extra dimension journal April 2020
Hidden sector explanation of B -decay and cosmic-ray anomalies journal May 2017
Supersymmetric resonant dark matter: A thermal model for the AMS-02 positron excess journal June 2018
Testing scalar versus vector dark matter journal January 2019
Multicomponent dark matter from a hidden gauged SU(3) journal April 2019
Powerful Solar Signatures of Long-Lived Dark Mediators text January 2017
Mapping Extragalactic Dark Matter Annihilation with Galaxy Surveys: A Systematic Study of Stacked Group Searches text January 2017
Dark Matter Energy Deposition and Production from the Table-Top to the Cosmos preprint January 2019
Composite dark matter phenomenology in the presence of lighter degrees of freedom text January 2019

Figures / Tables (20)


Similar Records

Model-independent indirect detection constraints on hidden sector dark matter
Journal Article · Fri Jun 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics · OSTI ID:1436984

Impeded Dark Matter
Journal Article · Mon Dec 12 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1436984

γ-ray Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter and Implications for IceCube
Journal Article · Thu Jul 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:1436984