Substructure Boosts to Dark Matter Annihilation from Sommerfeld Enhancement

The recently introduced Sommerfeld enhancement of the dark matter annihilation cross section has important implications for the detection of dark matter annihilation in subhalos in the Galactic halo. In addition to the boost to the dark matter annihilation cross section from the high densities of these subhalos with respect to the main halo, an additional boost caused by the Sommerfeld enhancement results from the fact that they are kinematically colder than the Galactic halo. If we further believe the generic prediction of CDM that in each subhalo there is an abundance of substructure which is approximately self-similar to that of the Galactic halo, then I show that additional boosts coming from the density enhancements of these small substructures and their small velocity dispersions enhance the dark matter annihilation cross section even further. I find that very large boost factors ($10^5$ to $10^9$) are obtained in a large class of models. The implications of these boost factors for the detection of dark matter annihilation from dwarf Spheroidal galaxies in the Galactic halo are such that, generically, they outshine the background gamma-ray flux and are detectable by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.Comment: PRD in pres

Confining Flux Tubes in a Current Algebra Approach

We describe flux tubes and their interactions in a low energy sigma model induced by $SU({N_f}) \rightarrow SO({N_f})$ flavor symmetry breaking in $SO(N_c)$ QCD. Unlike standard QCD, this model allows gauge confinement to manifest itself in the low energy theory, which has unscreened spinor color sources and global $Z_2$ flux tubes. We construct the flux tubes and show how they mediate the confinement of spinor sources. We further examine the flux tubes' quantum stability, spectrum and interactions. We find that flux tubes are Alice strings, despite ambiguities in defining parallel transport. Furthermore, twisted loops of flux tube support skyrmion number, just as gauged Alice strings form loops that support monopole charge. This model, while phenomenologically nonviable, thus affords a perspective on both the dynamics of confinement and on subtleties which arise for global Alice strings.Comment: 29 pages (REVTEX) plus 6 figures, two corrections in the final section and added reference

Phase transitions near black hole horizons

The Reissner-Nordstrom black hole in four dimensions can be made unstable without violating the dominant energy condition by introducing a real massive scalar with non-renormalizable interactions with the gauge field. New stable black hole solutions then exist with greater entropy for fixed mass and charge than the Reissner-Nordstrom solution. In these new solutions, the scalar condenses to a non-zero value near the horizon. Various generalizations of these hairy black holes are discussed, and an attempt is made to characterize when black hole hair can occur.Comment: 30 pages, 6 figures. v2: minor corrections, references adde

The order of the phase transition in 3d U(1)+Higgs theory

We study the order of the phase transition in the 3d U(1)+Higgs theory, which is the Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity. We confirm that for small scalar self-coupling the transition is of first order. For large scalar self-coupling the transition ceases to be of first order, and a non-vanishing scalar mass suggests that the transition may even be of higher than second order.Comment: Poster at LATTICE96(electroweak). 4 pages, 5 figure

A remark on sphaleron erasure of baryon asymmetry

We complete an existing result for how the baryon asymmetry left over after a period of full thermal equilibrium depends on different lepton asymmetries.Comment: 5 pages; small clarifications and a reference added; to appear in PR

Sommerfeld Enhancement of DM Annihilation: Resonance Structure, Freeze-Out and CMB Spectral Bound

In the last few years there has been some interest in WIMP Dark Matter models featuring a velocity dependent cross section through the Sommerfeld enhancement mechanism, which is a nonrelativistic effect due to massive bosons in the dark sector. In the first part of this article, we find analytic expressions for the boost factor for three different model potentials, the Coulomb potential, the spherical well and the spherical cone well and compare with the numerical solution of the Yukawa potential. We find that the resonance pattern of all the potentials can be cast into the same universal form. In the second part of the article we perform a detailed computation of the Dark Matter relic density for models having Sommerfeld enhancement by solving the Boltzmann equation numerically. We calculate the expected distortions of the CMB blackbody spectrum from WIMP annihilations and compare these to the bounds set by FIRAS. We conclude that only a small part of the parameter space can be ruled out by the FIRAS observations.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, version accepted by JCA

Singlet Fermionic Dark Matter explains DAMA signal

It has been suggested that, considering channeling effect, the order of a few GeV dark matters which are elastically scattered from detector nuclei might be plausible candidates reconciling the DAMA annual modulation signal with the results of other null experiments. We show that Singlet Fermionic Dark Matter can be such a dark matter candidate, simultaneously providing the correct thermal relic density which is consistent with the WMAP data.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

Charge Violation and Alice Behavior in Global and Textured Strings

Spontaneous breaking of global symmetries can produce ``Alice'' strings: line defects which make unbroken symmetries multivalued, induce apparent charge violation via Aharonov-Bohm interactions, and form point defects when twisted into loops. We demonstrate this behavior for both divergent and textured global Alice strings. Both adiabatically scatter charged particles via effective Wilson lines. For textured Alice strings, such Wilson lines occur at all radii, and are multivalued only inside the string. This produces measurable effects, including path-dependent charge violation.Comment: 32 pages, 2 epsfigs, Revte

PAMELA, DAMA, INTEGRAL and Signatures of Metastable Excited WIMPs

Models of dark matter with ~ GeV scale force mediators provide attractive explanations of many high energy anomalies, including PAMELA, ATIC, and the WMAP haze. At the same time, by exploiting the ~ MeV scale excited states that are automatically present in such theories, these models naturally explain the DAMA/LIBRA and INTEGRAL signals through the inelastic dark matter (iDM) and exciting dark matter (XDM) scenarios, respectively. Interestingly, with only weak kinetic mixing to hypercharge to mediate decays, the lifetime of excited states with delta < 2 m_e is longer than the age of the universe. The fractional relic abundance of these excited states depends on the temperature of kinetic decoupling, but can be appreciable. There could easily be other mechanisms for rapid decay, but the consequences of such long-lived states are intriguing. We find that CDMS constrains the fractional relic population of ~100 keV states to be <~ 10^-2, for a 1 TeV WIMP with sigma_n = 10^-40 cm^2. Upcoming searches at CDMS, as well as xenon, silicon, and argon targets, can push this limit significantly lower. We also consider the possibility that the DAMA excitation occurs from a metastable state into the XDM state, which decays via e+e- emission, which allows lighter states to explain the INTEGRAL signal due to the small kinetic energies required. Such models yield dramatic signals from down-scattering, with spectra peaking at high energies, sometimes as high as ~1 MeV, well outside the usual search windows. Such signals would be visible at future Ar and Si experiments, and may be visible at Ge and Xe experiments. We also consider other XDM models involving ~ 500 keV metastable states, and find they can allow lighter WIMPs to explain INTEGRAL as well.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

Higgs bosons near 125 GeV in the NMSSM with constraints at the GUT scale

We study the NMSSM with universal Susy breaking terms (besides the Higgs sector) at the GUT scale. Within this constrained parameter space, it is not difficult to find a Higgs boson with a mass of about 125 GeV and an enhanced cross section in the diphoton channel. An additional lighter Higgs boson with reduced couplings and a mass <123 GeV is potentially observable at the LHC. The NMSSM-specific Yukawa couplings lambda and kappa are relatively large and tan(beta) is small, such that lambda, kappa and the top Yukawa coupling are of order 1 at the GUT scale. The lightest stop can be as light as 105 GeV, and the fine-tuning is modest. WMAP constraints can be satisfied by a dominantly higgsino-like LSP with substantial bino, wino and singlino admixtures and a mass of ~60-90 GeV, which would potentially be detectable by XENON100.Comment: 20 pages, 14 figure