Dark Matter's secret liaisons: phenomenology of a dark U(1) sector with bound states
- Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies (LPTHE), UMR 7589 CNRS and UPMC, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75252, Paris (France)
- CERN Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, Case C01600, CH-1211 Genève (Switzerland)
- Instituto de Física Teórica (IFT) UAM/CSIC, calle Nicolás Cabrera 13-15, 28049 Cantoblanco, Madrid (Spain)
Dark matter (DM) charged under a dark U(1) force appears in many extensions of the Standard Model, and has been invoked to explain anomalies in cosmic-ray data, as well as a self-interacting DM candidate. In this paper, we perform a comprehensive phenomenological analysis of such a model, assuming that the DM abundance arises from the thermal freeze-out of the dark interactions. We include, for the first time, bound-state effects both in the DM production and in the indirect detection signals, and quantify their importance for FERMI, AMS-02, and CMB experiments. We find that DM in the mass range 1 GeV to 100 TeV, annihilating into dark photons of MeV to GeV mass, is in conflict with observations. Instead, DM annihilation into heavier dark photons is viable. We point out that the late decays of multi-GeV dark photons can produce significant entropy and thus dilute the DM density. This can lower considerably the dark coupling needed to obtain the DM abundance, and in turn relax the existing constraints.
- OSTI ID:
- 22676203
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2017, Issue 05; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1475-7516
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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