We reconsider the proposal of excited dark matter (DM) as an explanation for
excess 511 keV gamma rays from positrons in the galactic center. We
quantitatively compute the cross section for DM annihilation to nearby excited
states, mediated by exchange of a new light gauge boson with off-diagonal
couplings to the DM states. In models where both excited states must be heavy
enough to decay into e^+ e^- and the ground state, the predicted rate of
positron production is never large enough to agree with observations, unless
one makes extreme assumptions about the local circular velocity in the Milky
Way, or alternatively if there exists a metastable population of DM states
which can be excited through a mass gap of less than 650 keV, before decaying
into electrons and positrons.Comment: Dedicated to the memory of Lev Kofman; 16 pages, 9 figures; v3 added
refs, minor changes, accepted to PR