Dark matter theory: Implications and future prospects for Fermi

I give a brief review of some of the implications of Fermi data for theories of the identity of dark matter, and their combination with data from other complementary probes. I also preview some of the prospects for probing such models with future data.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the 7th International Fermi Symposium, Garmish, Oct 15-20 201

Two-loop mass splittings in electroweak multiplets: winos and minimal dark matter

The radiatively-induced splitting of masses in electroweak multiplets is relevant for both collider phenomenology and dark matter. Precision two-loop corrections of $\mathcal{O}$(MeV) to the triplet mass splitting in the wino limit of the minimal supersymmetric standard model can affect particle lifetimes by up to $40\%$. We improve on previous two-loop self-energy calculations for the wino model by obtaining consistent input parameters to the calculation via two-loop renormalisation-group running, and including the effect of finite light quark masses. We also present the first two-loop calculation of the mass splitting in an electroweak fermionic quintuplet, corresponding to the viable form of minimal dark matter (MDM). We place significant constraints on the lifetimes of the charged and doubly-charged fermions in this model. We find that the two-loop mass splittings in the MDM quintuplet are not constant in the large-mass limit, as might naively be expected from the triplet calculation. This is due to the influence of the additional heavy fermions in loop corrections to the gauge boson propagators.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, 2 Table

Dark Matter CMB Constraints and Likelihoods for Poor Particle Physicists

The cosmic microwave background provides constraints on the annihilation and decay of light dark matter at redshifts between 100 and 1000, the strength of which depends upon the fraction of energy ending up in the form of electrons and photons. The resulting constraints are usually presented for a limited selection of annihilation and decay channels. Here we provide constraints on the annihilation cross section and decay rate, at discrete values of the dark matter mass, for all the annihilation and decay channels whose secondary spectra have been computed using PYTHIA in arXiv:1012.4515 ("PPPC4DMID: A Poor Particle Physicist Cookbook for Dark Matter Indirect Detection"), namely e, mu, tau, V -> e, V -> mu, V -> tau, u, d, s, c, b, t, gamma, g, W, Z and h. By interpolating in mass, these can be used to find the CMB constraints and likelihood functions from WMAP7 and Planck for a wide range of dark matter models, including those with annihilation or decay into a linear combination of different channels.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. v2: some additional discussion and references; submitted to PRD v3: some further discussion added in response to referee's comments. Withdrawn from PRD before refereeing due to disagreement over the title, matches version accepted by JCAP v4: fixes a textual typo found in proof, correctly refers to the example channel in Fig 4 (mu, not e), as per erratum sent to JCA

The DarkStars code: a publicly available dark stellar evolution package

We announce the public release of the 'dark' stellar evolution code DarkStars. The code simultaneously solves the equations of WIMP capture and annihilation in a star with those of stellar evolution assuming approximate hydrostatic equilibrium. DarkStars includes the most extensive WIMP microphysics of any dark evolution code to date. The code employs detailed treatments of the capture process from a range of WIMP velocity distributions, as well as composite WIMP distribution and conductive energy transport schemes based on the WIMP mean-free path in the star. We give a brief description of the input physics and practical usage of the code, as well as examples of its application to dark stars at the Galactic centre.Comment: The DarkStars code can be downloaded from http://www.fysik.su.se/~pat/darkstars; 8 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of Dark2009, Christchurch, NZ, Jan 18-24 200

Constraints on cosmic strings from ultracompact minihalos

Cosmic strings are expected to form loops. These can act as seeds for accretion of dark matter, leading to the formation of ultracompact minihalos (UCMHs). We perform a detailed study of the accretion of dark matter onto cosmic string loops and compute the resulting mass distribution of UCMHs. We then apply observational limits on the present-day abundance of UCMHs to derive corresponding limits on the cosmic string tension $G\mu$. The bounds are strongly dependent upon the assumed distribution of loop velocities and their impacts on UCMH formation. Under the assumption that a loop can move up to a thousand times its own radius and still form a UCMH, we find a limit of $G\mu\le 5\times10^{-8}$. We show, in opposition to previous results, that strong limits on the cosmic string tension are not obtainable from UCMHs when more stringent (and realistic) requirements are placed on loop velocities.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Impacts of WIMP dark matter upon stellar evolution: main-sequence stars

The presence of large amounts of WIMP dark matter in stellar cores has been shown to have significant effects upon models of stellar evolution. We present a series of detailed grids of WIMP-influenced stellar models for main sequence stars, computed using the DarkStars code. We describe the changes in stellar structure and main sequence evolution which occur for masses ranging from 0.3 to 2.0 solar masses and metallicities from Z = 0.0003-0.02, as a function of the rate of energy injection by WIMPs. We then go on to show what rates of energy injection can be obtained using realistic orbital parameters for stars near supermassive black holes, including detailed considerations of dark matter halo velocity and density profiles. Capture and annihilation rates are strongly boosted when stars follow elliptical rather than circular orbits, causing WIMP annihilation to provide up to 100 times the energy of hydrogen fusion in stars at the Galactic centre.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of the Identification of Dark Matter conference (IDM 2008), Stockholm, Sweden, 18-22 August, 200

Low mass stellar evolution with WIMP capture and annihilation

Recent work has indicated that WIMP annihilation in stellar cores has the potential to contribute significantly to a star's total energy production. We report on progress in simulating the effects of WIMP capture and annihilation upon stellar structure and evolution near supermassive black holes, using the new DarkStars code. Preliminary results indicate that low-mass stars are the most influenced by WIMP annihilation, which could have consequences for upcoming observational programs.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of DARK2007, eds. H.V. Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, I. Krivosheina and G. Lewis, World Scientific, 200

Improved constraints on the primordial power spectrum at small scales from ultracompact minihalos

For a Gaussian spectrum of primordial density fluctuations, ultracompact minihalos (UCMHs) of dark matter are expected to be produced in much greater abundance than, e.g., primordial black holes. Forming shortly after matter-radiation equality, these objects would develop very dense and spiky dark matter profiles. In the standard scenario where dark matter consists of thermally-produced, weakly-interacting massive particles, UCMHs could thus appear as highly luminous gamma-ray sources, or leave an imprint in the cosmic microwave background by changing the reionisation history of the Universe. We derive corresponding limits on the cosmic abundance of UCMHs at different epochs, and translate them into constraints on the primordial power spectrum. We find the resulting constraints to be quite severe, especially at length scales much smaller than what can be directly probed by the cosmic microwave background or large-scale structure observations. We use our results to provide an updated compilation of the best available constraints on the power of density fluctuations on all scales, ranging from the present-day horizon to scales more than 20 orders of magnitude smaller.Comment: 7 figures, 14 pages + appendices. v2 matches version accepted for publication in PRD; updated to WMAP normalisation, updated reionisation limits, various other small changes. v3 slightly corrects the normalisation used for displaying past data in Fig 6, as well as a sign typo picked up in proof in Eq 26. All results and conclusions completely unchange