13 research outputs found
Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter, Electrons and Gamma Ray Telescopes
Kaluza-Klein dark matter particles can annihilate efficiently into
electron-positron pairs, providing a discrete feature (a sharp edge) in the
cosmic spectrum at an energy equal to the particle's mass (typically
several hundred GeV to one TeV). Although this feature is probably beyond the
reach of satellite or balloon-based cosmic ray experiments (those that
distinguish the charge and mass of the primary particle), gamma ray telescopes
may provide an alternative detection method. Designed to observe very
high-energy gamma-rays, ACTs also observe the diffuse flux of electron-induced
electromagnetic showers. The GLAST satellite, designed for gamma ray astronomy,
will also observe any high energy showers (several hundred GeV and above) in
its calorimeter. We show that high-significance detections of an
electron-positron feature from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilations are
possible with GLAST, and also with ACTs such as HESS, VERITAS or MAGIC.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure
Aidnogenesis via Leptogenesis and Dark Sphalerons
We discuss aidnogenesis, the generation of a dark matter asymmetry via new
sphaleron processes associated to an extra non-abelian gauge symmetry common to
both the visible and the dark sectors. Such a theory can naturally produce an
abundance of asymmetric dark matter which is of the same size as the lepton and
baryon asymmetries, as suggested by the similar sizes of the observed baryonic
and dark matter energy content, and provide a definite prediction for the mass
of the dark matter particle. We discuss in detail a minimal realization in
which the Standard Model is only extended by dark matter fermions which form
"dark baryons" through an SU(3) interaction, and a (broken) horizontal symmetry
that induces the new sphalerons. The dark matter mass is predicted to be
approximately 6 GeV, close to the region favored by DAMA and CoGeNT.
Furthermore, a remnant of the horizontal symmetry should be broken at a lower
scale and can also explain the Tevatron dimuon anomaly.Comment: Minor changes, discussion of present constraints expanded. 16 pages,
2 eps figures, REVTeX
Low energy antideuterons: shedding light on dark matter
Low energy antideuterons suffer a very low secondary and tertiary
astrophysical background, while they can be abundantly synthesized in dark
matter pair annihilations, therefore providing a privileged indirect dark
matter detection technique. The recent publication of the first upper limit on
the low energy antideuteron flux by the BESS collaboration, a new evaluation of
the standard astrophysical background, and remarkable progresses in the
development of a dedicated experiment, GAPS, motivate a new and accurate
analysis of the antideuteron flux expected in particle dark matter models. To
this extent, we consider here supersymmetric, universal extra-dimensions (UED)
Kaluza-Klein and warped extra-dimensional dark matter models, and assess both
the prospects for antideuteron detection as well as the various related sources
of uncertainties. The GAPS experiment, even in a preliminary balloon-borne
setup, will explore many supersymmetric configurations, and, eventually, in its
final space-borne configuration, will be sensitive to primary antideuterons
over the whole cosmologically allowed UED parameter space, providing a search
technique which is highly complementary with other direct and indirect dark
matter detection experiments.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures; version to appear in JCA
Probing Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter with Neutrino Telescopes
In models in which all of the Standard Model fields live in extra universal
dimensions, the lightest Kaluza-Klein (KK) particle can be stable. Calculations
of the one-loop radiative corrections to the masses of the KK modes suggest
that the identity of the lightest KK particle (LKP) is mostly the first KK
excitation of the hypercharge gauge boson. This LKP is a viable dark matter
candidate with an ideal present-day relic abundance if its mass is moderately
large, between 600 to 1200 GeV. Such weakly interacting dark matter particles
are expected to become gravitationally trapped in large bodies, such as the
Sun, and annihilate into neutrinos or other particles that decay into
neutrinos. We calculate the annihilation rate, neutrino flux and the resulting
event rate in present and future neutrino telescopes. The relatively large mass
implies that the neutrino energy spectrum is expected to be well above the
energy threshold of AMANDA and IceCube. We find that the event rate in IceCube
is between a few to tens of events per year.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX; typos fixed, version to appear in PR
Vacuum Instabilities with a Wrong-Sign Higgs-Gluon-Gluon Amplitude
The recently discovered 125 GeV boson appears very similar to a Standard
Model Higgs, but with data favoring an enhanced h to gamma gamma rate. A number
of groups have found that fits would allow (or, less so after the latest
updates, prefer) that the h-t-tbar coupling have the opposite sign. This can be
given meaning in the context of an electroweak chiral Lagrangian, but it might
also be interpreted to mean that a new colored and charged particle runs in
loops and produces the opposite-sign hGG amplitude to that generated by
integrating out the top, as well as a contribution reinforcing the W-loop
contribution to hFF. In order to not suppress the rate of h to WW and h to ZZ,
which appear to be approximately Standard Model-like, one would need the loop
to "overshoot," not only canceling the top contribution but producing an
opposite-sign hGG vertex of about the same magnitude as that in the SM. We
argue that most such explanations have severe problems with fine-tuning and,
more importantly, vacuum stability. In particular, the case of stop loops
producing an opposite-sign hGG vertex of the same size as the Standard Model
one is ruled out by a combination of vacuum decay bounds and LEP constraints.
We also show that scenarios with a sign flip from loops of color octet charged
scalars or new fermionic states are highly constrained.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures; v2: references adde