Role of electroweak bremsstrahlung for indirect dark matter signatures

Journal Article · Tue Dec 15 04:00:00 EST 2009 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.80.123533· OSTI ID:21313587

Kachelriess, M; Solberg, M A ^[1]; Serpico, P D ^[2]

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1. Institutt for Fysikk, NTNU, N-7491 Trondheim (Norway)
2. Physics Department, Theory Division, CERN, CH-1211 Geneva 23 (Switzerland)

Interpretations of indirect searches for dark matter (DM) require theoretical predictions for the annihilation or decay rates of DM into stable particles of the standard model. These predictions include usually only final states accessible as lowest order tree-level processes, with electromagnetic bremsstrahlung and the loop-suppressed two gamma-ray line as exceptions. We show that this restriction may lead to severely biased results for DM tailored to produce only leptons in final states and with mass in the TeV range. For such models, unavoidable electroweak bremsstrahlung of Z and W-bosons has a significant influence both on the branching ratio and the spectral shape of the final state particles. We work out the consequences for two situations: First, the idealized case where DM annihilates at tree level with 100% branching ratio into neutrinos. For a given cross section, this leads eventually to 'minimal yields' of photons, electrons, positrons, and antiprotons. Second, the case where the only allowed two-body final states are electrons. The latter case is typical of models aimed at fitting cosmic ray e{sup -} and e{sup +} data. We find that the multimessenger signatures of such models can be significantly modified with respect to results presented in the literature.

• OSTI ID: 21313587
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 80; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ANNIHILATION
ANTIPROTONS
BRANCHING RATIO
BREMSSTRAHLUNG
COSMIC ELECTRONS
COSMIC POSITRONS
COSMIC RADIATION
CROSS SECTIONS
GAMMA RADIATION
MASS
NEUTRINOS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTONS
STANDARD MODEL
TEV RANGE
TWO-BODY PROBLEM
W MINUS BOSONS
W PLUS BOSONS
WEINBERG-SALAM GAUGE MODEL