Novel dark matter constraints from antiprotons in the light of AMS-02

We evaluate dark matter (DM) limits from cosmic-ray antiproton observations using the recent precise AMS-02 measurements. We properly take into account cosmic-ray propagation uncertainties fitting at the same time DM and propagation parameters, and marginalizing over the latter. We find a significant (~4.5 sigma) indication of a DM signal for DM masses near 80 GeV, with a hadronic annihilation cross-section close to the thermal value, sigma v ~3e-26 cm3s-1. Intriguingly, this signal is compatible with the DM interpretation of the Galactic center gamma-ray excess. Confirmation of the signal will require a more accurate study of the systematic uncertainties, i.e., the antiproton production cross-section, and modelling of the solar modulation effect. Interpreting the AMS-02 data in terms of upper limits on hadronic DM annihilation, we obtain strong constraints excluding a thermal annihilation cross-section for DM masses below about 50 GeV and in the range between approximately 150 and 500 GeV, even for conservative propagation scenarios. Except for the range around 80 GeV, our limits are a factor 4 stronger than the limits from gamma-ray observations of dwarf galaxies.Comment: 6 pages + 3 of supplemental material, 7 figures, 1 tables. Matches version published on physical review letter

Prospects to verify a possible dark matter hint in cosmic antiprotons with antideuterons and antihelium

Cosmic rays are an important tool to study dark matter annihilation in our Galaxy. Recently, a possible hint for dark matter annihilation was found in the antiproton spectrum measured by AMS-02, even though the result might be affected by theoretical uncertainties. A complementary way to test its dark matter interpretation would be the observation of low-energy antinuclei in cosmic rays. We determine the chances to observe antideuterons with GAPS and AMS-02, and the implications for the ongoing AMS-02 antihelium searches. We find that the corresponding antideuteron signal is within the GAPS and AMS-02 detection potential. If, more conservatively, the putative signal was considered as an upper limit on DM annihilation, our results would indicate the highest possible fluxes for antideuterons and antihelium compatible with current antiproton data.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, matches published versio

Prescriptions on antiproton cross section data for precise theoretical antiproton flux predictions

After the breakthrough from the satellite-borne PAMELA detector, the flux of cosmic-ray (CR) antiprotons has been provided with unprecedented accuracy by AMS-02 on the International Space Station. Its data spans an energy range from below 1 GeV up to 400 GeV and most of the data points contain errors below the amazing level of 5%. The bulk of the antiproton flux is expected to be produced by the scatterings of CR protons and helium off interstellar hydrogen and helium atoms at rest. The modeling of these interactions, which requires the relevant production cross sections, induces an uncertainty in the determination of the antiproton source term that can even exceed the uncertainties in the CR $\bar{p}$ data itself. The aim of the present analysis is to determine the uncertainty required for $p+p\rightarrow \bar{p} + X$ cross section measurements such that the induced uncertainties on the $\bar{p}$ flux are at the same level. Our results are discussed both in the center-of-mass reference frame, suitable for collider experiments, and in the laboratory frame, as occurring in the Galaxy. We find that cross section data should be collected with accuracy better that few percent with proton beams from 10 GeV to 6 TeV and a pseudorapidity $\eta$ ranging from 2 to almost 8 or, alternatively, with $p_T$ from 0.04 to 2 GeV and $x_R$ from 0.02 to 0.7. Similar considerations hold for the $p$He production channel. The present collection of data is far from these requirements. Nevertheless, they could, in principle, be reached by fixed target experiments with beam energies in the reach of CERN accelerators.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, matches published versio

Probing dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy with antiprotons and gamma rays

A possible hint of dark matter annihilation has been found in Cuoco, Korsmeier and Kr\"amer (2017) from an analysis of recent cosmic-ray antiproton data from AMS-02 and taking into account cosmic-ray propagation uncertainties by fitting at the same time dark matter and propagation parameters. Here, we extend this analysis to a wider class of annihilation channels. We find consistent hints of a dark matter signal with an annihilation cross-section close to the thermal value and with masses in range between 40 and 130 GeV depending on the annihilation channel. Furthermore, we investigate in how far the possible signal is compatible with the Galactic center gamma-ray excess and recent observation of dwarf satellite galaxies by performing a joint global fit including uncertainties in the dark matter density profile. As an example, we interpret our results in the framework of the Higgs portal model.Comment: 12 pages + references, 4 figures, v2: References added, minor changes in presentation, matches journal versio

Constraining heavy dark matter with cosmic-ray antiprotons

Cosmic-ray observations provide a powerful probe of dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. In this paper we derive constraints on heavy dark matter from the recent precise AMS-02 antiproton data. We consider all possible annihilation channels into pairs of standard model particles. Furthermore, we interpret our results in the context of minimal dark matter, including higgsino, wino and quintuplet dark matter. We compare the cosmic-ray antiproton limits to limits from $\gamma$-ray observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and to limits from $\gamma$-ray and $\gamma$-line observations towards the Galactic center. While the latter limits are highly dependent on the dark matter density distribution and only exclude a thermal wino for cuspy profiles, the cosmic-ray limits are more robust, strongly disfavoring the thermal wino dark matter scenario even for a conservative estimate of systematic uncertainties.Comment: 14 pages + references, 5 figures; v2: HESS limits added in Fig. 2, matches published versio

Production cross sections of cosmic antiprotons in the light of new data from the NA61 and LHCb experiments

The cosmic-ray flux of antiprotons is measured with high precision by the space-borne particle spectrometers AMS-02.Its interpretation requires a correct description of the dominant production process for antiprotons in our Galaxy, namely, the interaction of cosmic-ray proton and helium with the interstellar medium. In the light of new cross section measurements by the NA61 experiment of $p + p \rightarrow \bar{p} + X$ and the first ever measurement of $p + \mathrm{He} \rightarrow \bar{p} + X$ by the LHCb experiment, we update the parametrization of proton-proton and proton-nucleon cross sections.We find that the LHCb $p$He data constrain a shape for the cross section at high energies and show for the first time how well the rescaling from the $pp$ channel applies to a helium target. By using $pp$, $p$He and $p$C data we estimate the uncertainty on the Lorentz invariant cross section for $p + \mathrm{He} \rightarrow \bar{p} + X$. We use these new cross sections to compute the source term for all the production channels, considering also nuclei heavier than He both in cosmic rays and the interstellar medium. The uncertainties on the total source term are at the level of $\pm20$% and slightly increase below antiproton energies of 5 GeV. This uncertainty is dominated by the $p+p \rightarrow \bar{p} + X$ cross section, which translates into all channels since we derive them using the $pp$ cross sections. The cross sections to calculate the source spectra from all relevant cosmic-ray isotopes are provided in the Supplemental Material. We finally quantify the necessity of new data on antiproton production cross sections, and pin down the kinematic parameter space which should be covered by future data.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, matches published versio

Cross-calibration of the Transition Radiation Detector of AMS-02 for an Energy Measurement of Cosmic-Ray Ions

Since May 2011 the AMS-02 experiment is installed on the International Space Station and is observing cosmic radiation. It consists of several state-of-the-art sub-detectors, which redundantly measure charge and energy of traversing particles. Due to the long exposure time of AMS-02 of many years the measurement of momentum for protons and ions is limited systematically by the spatial resolution and magnetic field strength of the silicon tracker. The maximum detectable rigidity for protons is about 1.8~TV, for helium about 3.6~TV. We investigate the possibility to extend the range of the energy measurement for heavy nuclei ($Z\geq2$) with the transition radiation detector (TRD). The response function of the TRD shows a steep increase in signal from the level of ionization at a Lorentz factor $\gamma$ of about 500 to $\gamma\approx20000$, where the transition radiation signal saturates. For heavy ions the signal fluctuations in the TRD are sufficiently small to allow an energy measurement with the TRD beyond the limitations of the tracker. The energy resolution of the TRD is determined and reaches a level of about 20\% for boron ($Z=5$). After adjusting the operational parameters of the TRD a measurement of boron and carbon could be possible up to 5~TeV/nucleon.Comment: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Researc

Implications of Lithium to Oxygen AMS-02 spectra on our understanding of cosmic-ray diffusion

We analyze recent AMS-02 comic-ray measurements of Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen and Oxygen. The emphasis of the analysis is on systematic uncertainties related to propagation and nuclear cross-sections. To investigate the uncertainties in the propagation scenario, we consider five different frameworks, differing with respect to the inclusion of a diffusion break at few GVs, the presence of reacceleration, and the presence of a break in the injection spectra of primaries. For each framework we fit the diffusion equations of cosmic rays and exploring the parameter space with Monte Carlo methods. At the same time, the impact of the uncertainties in the nuclear production cross-sections of secondaries is explicitly considered and included in the fit through the use of nuisance parameters. We find that all the considered frameworks are able to provide a good fit. In particular, two competing scenarios, one including a break in diffusion but no reacceleration and the other with reacceleration but no break in diffusion are both allowed. The inclusion of cross-section uncertainties is, however, crucial, to this result. Thus, at the moment, these uncertainties represent a fundamental systematic preventing a deeper understanding of the properties of CR propagation. We find, nonetheless, that the slope of diffusion at intermediate rigidities is robustly constrained in the range $\delta\simeq0.45-0.5$ in models without convection, or $\delta\simeq0.4-0.5$ if convection is included in the fit. Furthermore, we find that the use of the AMS-02 Beryllium data provides a lower limit on the vertical size of the Galactic propagation halo of $z_\mathrm{h}\gtrsim3$ kpc.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure

Testing the universality of cosmic-ray nuclei from protons to oxygen with AMS-02

The AMS-02 experiment has provided high-precision measurements of several cosmic-ray (CR) species. The achieved percent-level accuracy gives access to small spectral differences among the different species and, in turn, this allows scrutinizing the universality of CR acceleration, which is expected in the standard scenario of CR shock acceleration. While pre-AMS-02 data already indicated a violation of the universality between protons and helium, it is still an open question if at least helium and heavier nuclei can be reconciled. To address this issue, we performed a joint analysis using the AMS-02 CR measurements of antiprotons, protons, helium, helium 3, boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. We explore two competing propagation scenarios, one with a break in the diffusion coefficient at a few GVs and no reacceleration, and another one with reacceleration and with a break in the injection spectra of primaries. Furthermore, we explicitly consider the impact of the uncertainties in the nuclear production cross-sections of secondaries by including nuisance parameters in the fit. The resulting parameter space is explored with the help of Monte Carlo methods. We find that, contrary to the naive expectation, in the standard propagation scenarios CR universality is violated also for He, on the one hand, and C, N, and O, on the other hand, i.e., different injection slopes (at the level of $\Delta \sim 0.05$) are required to explain the observed spectra. As an alternative, we explore further propagation scenarios, inspired by non-homogeneous diffusion, which might save universality. Finally, we also investigate the universality of CR propagation, i.e., we compare the propagation properties inferred using only light nuclei ($\bar{p}$, p, He, $^3$He) with the ones inferred using only heavier nuclei (B, C, N, O).Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures; v2: results and conclusion unchanged; expanded introduction and discussion; matches accepted version by PR