Dark matter self-interactions and light force carriers

Journal Article · Thu Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.083522· OSTI ID:21409578

Buckley, Matthew R ^[1]; Fox, Patrick J ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
2. Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois 60510 (United States)

Recent observations from PAMELA, FERMI, and ATIC point to a new source of high energy cosmic rays. If these signals are due to annihilating dark matter (DM), the annihilation cross section in the present day must be substantially larger than that necessary for thermal freeze-out in the early universe. A new force, mediated by a particle of mass O(100 MeV), leading to a velocity-dependent annihilation cross section - a 'Sommerfeld enhancement' - has been proposed as a possible explanation. We point out that such models necessarily increase the DM self-scattering cross section, and use observational bounds on the amount of DM-DM scattering allowed in various astrophysical systems to place constraints on the mass and couplings of the light mediator.

• OSTI ID: 21409578
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 81; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANNIHILATION
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC RADIATION
COUPLING
CROSS SECTIONS
ENERGY RANGE
FREEZING OUT
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MASS
MATTER
MEV RANGE
MEV RANGE 100-1000
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLES
PHYSICS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
UNIVERSE
VELOCITY