Clumpy Neutralino Dark Matter

We investigate the possibility to detect neutralino dark matter in a scenario in which the galactic dark halo is clumpy. We find that under customary assumptions on various astrophysical parameters, the antiproton and continuum gamma-ray signals from neutralino annihilation in the halo put the strongest limits on the clumpiness of a neutralino halo. We argue that indirect detection through neutrinos from the Earth and the Sun should not be much affected by clumpiness. We identify situations in parameter space where the gamma-ray line, positron and diffuse neutrino signals from annihilations in the halo may provide interesting signals in upcoming detectors.Comment: 19 pages, 10 eps-figures (included), LaTeX, uses RevTe

Full One-loop Calculation of Neutralino Annihilation into Two Photons

For the first time, a full one-loop calculation of the process $\chi\chi\to 2\gamma$ is performed, where $\chi$ is the lightest neutralino in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. This process is of interest for dark matter detection, since it would give a sharp $\gamma$ ray line with $E_\gamma=m_\chi$. We improve upon and correct published formulas, and give cross sections for supersymmetric models with $\chi$ masses between 30 GeV and several TeV. We find a new contribution, previously neglected, which enhances the $2\gamma$ rate for TeV higgsinos by up to an order of magnitude. As a byproduct, we obtain a new expression for the related process $\chi\chi\to 2 gluons$, which on the other hand is generally smaller than previously calculated. There has been a recent claim that evidence for a 3.5 TeV higgsino annihilating into a $\gamma$ line may already exist from balloon emulsion and Air Cherenkov Telescope data. We comment on attractive features and problems with this interpretation.Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX, uses epsfig, 6 figures included. Pure higgsino limit corrected. Conclusions unchange

Aspects of production and kinetic decoupling of non-thermal dark matter

We reconsider non-thermal production of WIMP dark matter in a systematic way and using a numerical code for accurate computations of dark matter relic densities. Candidates with large pair annihilation rates are favored, suggesting a connection with the anomalies in the lepton cosmic-ray flux detected by Pamela and Fermi. Focussing on supersymmetric models we will consider the impact of non-thermal production on the preferred mass scale for dark matter neutralinos. We have also developed a new formalism to solve the Boltzmann's equation for a system of coannihilating species without assuming kinetic equilibrium and applied it to the case of pure Winos.Comment: Proceedings for the conference TAUP 201

PeV-Scale Supersymmetry

Although supersymmetry has not been seen directly by experiment, there are powerful physics reasons to suspect that it should be an ingredient of nature and that superpartner masses should be somewhat near the weak scale. I present an argument that if we dismiss our ordinary intuition of finetuning, and focus entirely on more concrete physics issues, the PeV scale might be the best place for supersymmetry. PeV-scale supersymmetry admits gauge coupling unification, predicts a Higgs mass between 125 GeV and 155 GeV, and generally disallows flavor changing neutral currents and CP violating effects in conflict with current experiment. The PeV scale is motivated independently by dark matter and neutrino mass considerations.Comment: 5 RevTex page

Just so Higgs boson

8 pages, 4 figures.-- PACS nrs.: 11.30.Qc; 12.60.Fr; 14.80.Cp; 95.35.+d.-- ISI Article Identifier: 000245333000072.-- ArXiv pre-print available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0612280We discuss a minimal extension to the standard model in which there are two Higgs bosons and, in addition to the usual fermion content, two fermion doublets and one fermion singlet. The little hierarchy problem is solved by the vanishing of the one-loop corrections to the quadratic terms of the scalar potential. The electroweak ground state is therefore stable for values of the cut off up to 10 TeV. The Higgs boson mass can take values significantly larger than the current LEP bound and still be consistent with electroweak precision measurements.This work is partially supported by MIUR and the RTN European Program MRTN-CT-2004-503369. F. B. is supported by a MEC postdoctoral grant.Peer reviewe

Detecting dark matter WIMPs in the Draco dwarf: a multi-wavelength perspective

We explore the possible signatures of dark matter (DM) pair annihilations in the nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxy Draco. After investigating the mass models for Draco in the light of available observational data, we carefully model the DM density profile, taking advantage of numerical simulations of hierarchical structure formation. We then analyze the gamma-ray and electron/positron yield expected for weakly interacting DM particle (WIMP) models, including an accurate treatment of the propagation of the charged particle species. We show that unlike in larger DM structures - such as galaxy clusters - spatial diffusion plays here an important role. While Draco would appear as a point-like gamma-ray source, synchrotron emission from electrons and positrons produced by WIMP annihilations features a spatially extended structure. Depending upon the cosmic ray propagation setup and the size of the magnetic fields, the search for a diffuse radio emission from Draco can be a more sensitive indirect DM search probe than gamma rays. Finally, we show that available data are consistent with the presence of a black hole at the center of Draco: if this is indeed the case, very significant enhancements of the rates for gamma rays and other emissions related to DM annihilations are expected.Comment: 25 pages, 21 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Possible Indications of a Clumpy Dark Matter Halo

We investigate if the gamma ray halo, for which recent evidence has been found in EGRET data, can be explained by neutralino annihilations in a clumpy halo. We find that the measured excess gamma ray flux can be explained through a moderate amount of clumping in the halo. Moreover, the required amount of clumping implies also a measureable excess of antiprotons at low energies, for which there is support from recent measurements by the BESS collaboration. The predicted antiproton fluxes resulting from neutralino annihilations in a clumpy halo are high enough to give an excess over cosmic-ray produced antiprotons also at moderately high energies (above a few GeV). This prediction, as well as that of one or two sharp gamma lines coming from annihilations into 2 gammas or Z gamma can be tested in upcoming space-borne experiments like AMS and GLAST.Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps-figures (included), LaTeX, uses RevTe

On dark matter search after DAMA with Ge-73

The Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) is one of the main candidates for the relic dark matter (DM).In the effective low-energy minimal supersymmetric standard model (effMSSM) the neutralino-nucleon spin and scalar cross sections in the low-mass regime were calculated. The calculated cross sections are compared with almost all experimental currently available exclusion curves for spin-dependent WIMP-proton and WIMP-neutron cross sections. It is demonstrated that in general about two-orders-of-magnitude improvement of the current DM experiment sensitivities is needed to reach the (effMSSM) SUSY predictions. At the current level of accuracy it looks reasonable to safely neglect sub-dominant spin WIMP-nucleon contributions analyzing the data from spin-non-zero targets. To avoid misleading discrepancies between data and SUSY calculations it is, however, preferable to use a mixed spin-scalar coupling approach.This approach is applied to estimate future prospects of experiments with the odd-neutron high-spin isotope Ge-73. It is noticed that the DAMA evidence favors the light Higgs sector in the effMSSM, a high event rate in a Ge-73 detector and relatively high upgoing muon fluxes from relic neutralino annihilations in the Earth and the Sun.Comment: 29 pages, 12 figures, 124 reference

Phenomenological consequences of an interacting multicomponent dark sector

We consider a dark sector model containing stable fermions charged under an unbroken U(1) gauge interaction, with a massless dark photon as force carrier, and interacting with ordinary matter via scalar messengers. We study its early Universe evolution by solving a set of coupled Boltzmann equations that track the number density of the different species, as well as entropy and energy exchanges between the dark and visible sectors. Phenomenologically viable realizations include: (i) a heavy (order 1 TeV or more) leptonlike dark fermion playing the role of the dark matter candidate, with various production mechanisms active depending on the strength of the dark-visible sector portal; (ii) light (few GeV to few tens of GeV) quarklike dark fermions, stable but with suppressed relic densities; (iii) an extra radiation component in Universe due to dark photons, with temperature constrained by cosmic microwave background data, and in turn preventing dark fermions to be lighter than about 1 GeV. Extra constraints on our scenario stem from dark matter direct detection searches: the elastic scattering on nuclei is driven by dipole or charge radius interactions mediated by either Standard Model or dark photons, providing long-range effects which, however, are not always dominant, as usually assumed in this context. Projected sensitivities for next-generation detectors cover a significant portion of the viable parameter space and are competitive with respect to the model-dependent constraints derived from the magnetic dipole moments of leptons and cooling of stellar systems