Is There a Dark Matter Signal in the Galactic Positron Annihilation Radiation?

Journal Article · Fri Jul 17 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.103.031301· OSTI ID:21347052

Lingenfelter, R E; Rothschild, R E ^[1]; Higdon, J C ^[2]

---

1. Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)
2. Keck Science Center, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California 91711-5916, USA and California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)

Assuming Galactic positrons do not go far before annihilating, a difference between the observed 511 keV annihilation flux distribution and that of positron production, expected from beta{sup +} decay in Galactic iron nucleosynthesis, was evoked as evidence of a new source and signal of dark matter. We show, however, that the dark matter sources cannot account for the observed positronium fraction without extensive propagation. Yet with such propagation, standard nucleosynthetic sources can fully account for the spatial differences and positronium fraction, leaving no new signal for dark matter to explain.

• OSTI ID: 21347052
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.031301; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANNIHILATION
BETA DECAY
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
IRON
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
POSITRONIUM
POSITRONS
SIGNALS
ANTILEPTONS
ANTIMATTER
ANTIPARTICLES
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
EVOLUTION
FERMIONS
INTERACTIONS
LEPTONS
MATTER
METALS
NUCLEAR DECAY
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
SYNTHESIS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS