A number of papers attempt to explain the positron anomaly in cosmic rays, observed by PAMELA and AMS-02, in terms of dark matter (DM) decays or annihilations. However, the recent progress in cosmic gamma-ray studies challenges these attempts. Indeed, as we show, any rational DM model explaining the positron anomaly abundantly produces final state radiation and Inverse Compton gamma rays, which inevitably leads to a contradiction with Fermi-LAT isotropic diffuse gamma-ray background measurements. Furthermore, the Fermi-LAT observation of Milky Way dwarf satellites, supposed to be rich in DM, revealed no significant signal in gamma rays.We propose a generic approach in which the major contribution to cosmic rays comes from the dark matter disc and prove that the tension between the DM origin of the positron anomaly and the cosmic gamma-ray observations can be relieved. We consider both a simple model, in which DM decay/annihilate into charged leptons, and a model-independent minimal case of particle production, and we estimate the optimal thickness of DM disk. Possible mechanisms of formation and its properties are briefly discussed.
We present a scenario where dark matter is in the form of dark atoms that can accomodate the experimentally observed excess of positrons in PAMELA and AMS-02 while being compatible with the constraints imposed on the gamma-ray flux from Fermi/LAT. This scenario assumes that the dominant component of dark matter is in the form of a bound state between a helium nucleus and a −2 particle and a small component is in the form of a WIMP-like dark atom compatible with direct searches in underground detectors. One of the constituents of this WIMP-like state is a +2 metastable particle with a mass of 1 TeV or slightly below that by decaying to e + e + , µ + µ + and τ + τ + produces the observed positron excess. These decays can naturally take place via GUT interactions. If it exists, such a metastable particle can be found in the next run of LHC. The model predicts also the ratio of leptons over baryons in the Universe to be close to -3.
High energy collisions at the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC) produce a large number of particles along the beam collision axis, outside of the acceptance of existing LHC experiments. The proposed Forward Physics Facility (FPF), to be located several hundred meters from the ATLAS interaction point and shielded by concrete and rock, will host a suite of experiments to probe standard model (SM) processes and search for physics beyond the standard model (BSM). In this report, we review the status of the civil engineering plans and the experiments to explore the diverse physics signals that can be uniquely probed in the forward region. FPF experiments will be sensitive to a broad range of BSM physics through searches for new particle scattering or decay signatures and deviations from SM expectations in high statistics analyses with TeV neutrinos in this low-background environment. High statistics neutrino detection will also provide valuable data for fundamental topics in perturbative and non-perturbative QCD and in weak interactions. Experiments at the FPF will enable synergies between forward particle production at the LHC and astroparticle physics to be exploited. We report here on these physics topics, on infrastructure, detector, and simulation studies, and on future directions to realize the FPF’s physics potential.
The direct measurements of the cosmic electron-positron spectrum around 1 TeV made by DAMPE have induced many theoretical speculations about possible excesses in the data above the standard astrophysical predictions that might have the dark matter (DM) origin. These attempts mainly fall into two categories: i) DM annihilations (or decays) in the Galactic halo producing the broad spectrum excess; ii) DM annihilations in the nearby compact subhalo producing the sharp peak at 1.4 TeV. We investigate the gamma-ray emission accompanying e + e − production in DM annihilations, as well as various theoretical means to suppress the prompt radiation, such as specific interaction vertices or multi-cascade modes, and conclude that these attempts are in tension with various gamma-ray observations. We show that the DM explanations of the broad spectrum excess tend to contradict the diffuse isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB), measured by Fermi-LAT, while the nearby subhalo scenario is constrained by nonobservation in the surveys, performed by Fermi-LAT, MAGIC and HESS. We also briefly review other types of gamma-ray constraints, which seem to rule out the DM interpretations of the DAMPE broad spectrum excess as well.
When building CP-symmetric models beyond the Standard Model, one can impose CP symmetry of higher order. This means that one needs to apply the CP transformation more than two times to get the identity transformation, but still the model is perfectly CP-conserving. A multi-Higgs-doublet model based on CP symmetry of order 4, dubbed CP4, was recently proposed and its phenomenology is being explored. Here, we show that the construction does not stop at CP4. We build examples of renormalizable multi-Higgsdoublet potentials which are symmetric under CP8 or CP16, without leading to any accidental symmetry. If the vacuum conserves CP symmetry of order 2k, then the neutral scalars become CP eigenstates, which are characterized not by CP parities but by CP charges defined modulo 2k. One or more lightest states can be the dark matter candidates, which are protected against decay not by the internal symmetry but by the exotic CP. We briefly discuss their mass spectra and interaction patterns for CP8 and CP16.
We study a two component dark matter candidate inspired by the Minimal Walking Technicolor model. Dark matter consists of a dominant SIMP-like dark atom component made of bound states between primordial helium nuclei and a doubly charged technilepton, and a small WIMP-like component made of another dark atom bound state between a doubly charged technibaryon and a technilepton. This scenario is consistent with direct search experimental findings because the dominant SIMP component interacts too strongly to reach the depths of current detectors with sufficient energy to recoil and the WIMP-like component is too small to cause significant amount of events. In this context a metastable technibaryon that decays to e + e + , µ + µ + and τ + τ + can in principle explain the observed positron excess by AMS-02 and PAMELA, while being consistent with the photon flux observed by FERMI/LAT. We scan the parameters of the model and we find the best possible fit to the latest experimental data. We find that there is a small range of parameter space that this scenario can be realised under certain conditions regarding the cosmic ray propagation and the final state radiation. This range of parameters fall inside the region where the current run of LHC can probe, and therefore it will soon be possible to either verify or exclude conclusively this model of dark matter.
We study a novel dark matter production mechanism based on the freeze-in through semi-production, i.e. the inverse semi-annihilation processes. A peculiar feature of this scenario is that the production rate is suppressed by a small initial abundance of dark matter and consequently creating the observed abundance requires much larger coupling values than for the usual freeze-in. We provide a concrete example model exhibiting such production mechanism and study it in detail, extending the standard formalism to include the evolution of dark matter temperature alongside its number density and discuss the importance of this improved treatment. Finally, we confront the relic density constraint with the limits and prospects for the dark matter indirect detection searches. We show that, even if it was never in full thermal equilibrium in the early Universe, dark matter could, nevertheless, have strong enough present-day annihilation cross section to lead to observable signals.
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