511 keV photons from superconducting cosmic strings

We show that a tangle of light superconducting strings in the Milky Way could be the source of the observed 511 keV emission from electron-positron annihilation in the Galactic bulge. The scenario predicts a flux that is in agreement with observations if the strings are at the approximately 1 TeV scale, making the particle physics within reach of planned accelerator experiments. The emission is directly proportional to the galactic magnetic field, and future observations should be able to differentiate the superconducting string scenario from other proposals.     

Magnetic dipole moment and keV neutrino dark matter

We study magnetic dipole moments of right-handed neutrinos in a keV neutrino dark matter model. This model is a simple extension of the standard model with only right-handed neutrinos and a pair of charged particles added. One of the right-handed neutrinos is the candidate of dark matter with a keV mass. Some bounds on the dark matter magnetic dipole moment and model parameters are obtained from cosmological observations.     

Quasi-degenerate dark matter for DAMPE excess and 3.5 keV line

We propose a quasi-degenerate dark matter scenario to simultaneously explain the 1.4 Te V peak in the high-energy cosmic-ray electron-positron spectrum reported by the DAMPE collaboration very recently and the 3.5 ke V X-ray line observed in galaxies clusters and from the Galactic centre and confirmed by the Chandra and Nu STAR satellites. We consider a dark S U(2)′× U(1)′gauge symmetry under which the dark matter is a Dirac fermion doublet composed of two S U(2)′doublets with non-trivial U(1)′charges. At the one-loop level the two dark fermion components can have a mass split as a result of the dark gauge symmetry breaking. Through the exchange of a mediator scalar doublet the two quasi-degenerate dark fermions can mostly annihilate into the electron-positron pairs at the tree level for explaining the 1.4 Te V positron anomaly, meanwhile, the heavy dark fermion can very slowly decay into the light dark fermion with a photon at the one-loop level for explaining the 3.5 ke V X-ray line. Our dark fermions can be also verified in the direct detection experiments.     

Classical color fields as a dark matter candidate

A model of Dark Matter is proposed where the Dark Matter is a classical color field. The color fields are invisible as they may interact with colored elementary particles like the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopole only. Comparison with the Universal Rotation Curve is carried out.      

Gravitational waves from dark first order phase transitions and dark photons

Cold Dark Matter particles may interact with ordinary particles through a dark photon, which acquires a mass thanks to a spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism. We discuss a dark photon model in which the scalar singlet associated to the spontaneous symmetry breaking has an effective potential that induces a first order phase transition in the early Universe. Such a scenario provides a rich phenomenology for electron-positron colliders and gravitational waves interferometers, and may be tested in several different channels. The hidden first order phase transition implies the emission of gravitational waves signals, which may constrain the dark photon's space of parameters. Compared limits from electron-positron colliders, astrophysics, cosmology and future gravitational waves interferometers such as eLISA, U-DECIGO and BBO are discussed. This highly motivates a cross-checking strategy of data arising from experiments dedicated to gravitational waves, meson factories, the International Linear Collider(ILC), the Circular Electron Positron Collider(CEPC) and other underground direct detection experiments of cold dark matter candidates.     

Conversion of dark matter axions to photons in magnetospheres of neutron stars

We propose a new method to detect observational appearance of dark matter axions. The method utilizes radio observations of neutron stars. It is based on the conversion of axions to photons in strong magnetic fields of neutron stars (the Primakoff effect). If the conversion occurs, the radio spectrum of the object has a very distinctive feature—a narrow spike at the frequency corresponding to the rest mass of the axion. For example, if the coupling constant of the photon-axion interaction is M = 10¹⁰ GeV, the density of dark matter axions is ρ = 10⁻²⁴ g cm⁻³ and the axion mass is 5 μeV; then the flux from a strongly magnetized (10¹⁴ G) neutron star at the distance 300 pc from the Sun is expected to be about few tenths of millijansky at a frequency of about 1200 MHz in a bandwidth of about 3 MHz. Close-by X-ray dim isolated neutron stars are proposed as good candidates to look for such radio emission. The article is published in the original.     

Enhancement of dark matter relic density from late time dark matter conversions

We demonstrate that if the dark matter (DM) in the Universe contains multiple components, the possible interactions between the DM components may convert the heavier DM components into lighter ones. It is then possible that the lightest DM component with an annihilation cross section significantly larger than that of the typical weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) may lead to a relic density in agreement with cosmological observations, due to an enhancement of number density from the DM conversion process at late time after the thermal decoupling. This may provide an alternative source of boost factor relevant to the positron and electron excesses reported by the recent DM indirect search experiments.     

Escape of photons and electrons from an HPGe detector at 81 keV

Escape of Ge K x‐rays, Compton‐scattered incident radiation and photoelectrons from an HPGe detector was investigated for 81 keV incident photons. All three escape mechanisms were observed in the same experiment. Experimental escape fractions were compared with the results from Monte Carlo simulations. Good agreement was obtained for the escape of photons. However, the simulations underestimated the escape of photoelectrons. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gravitino dark matter from inflaton decay

We discuss a scenario that gravitinos produced non-thermally by an inflaton decay constitute dark matter in the present universe. We find that this scenario is realized for wide ranges of the inflaton mass and the vacuum expectation value. What is intriguing about this scenario is that the gravitino dark matter can have a relatively large free streaming length at matter-radiation equality, which can be probed by future observation on QSO-galaxy strong lens system.     

Gamma rays from Kaluza-Klein dark matter

A TeV gamma-ray signal from the direction of the Galactic center (GC) has been detected by the HESS experiment. Here, we investigate whether Kaluza-Klein (KK) dark matter annihilations near the GC can be the explanation. Including the contributions from internal bremsstrahlung as well as subsequent decays of quarks and tau leptons, we find a very flat gamma-ray spectrum which drops abruptly at the dark matter particle mass. For a KK mass of about 1 TeV, this gives a good fit to the HESS data below 1 TeV. A similar model, with gauge coupling roughly 3 times as large and a particle mass of about 10 TeV, would give both the correct relic density and a photon spectrum that fits the complete range of data.     

Primordial black holes and the observed Galactic 511 keV line

The observed 511 keV line from the Galactic Bulge is a real challenge for theoretical astrophysics: despite a lot of suggested mechanisms, there is still no convincing explanation and the origin of the annihilated positrons remains unknown. Here we discuss the possibility that a population of slowly evaporating primordial black holes with the mass around 10¹⁶–10¹⁷ g ejects (among other particles) low-energy positrons into the Galaxy. In addition to positrons, we have also calculated the spectrum and number density of photons and neutrinos produced by such black holes and found that the photons are potentially observable in the near future, while the neutrino flux is too weak and below the terrestrial and extra-terrestrial backgrounds. Depending on their mass distribution, such black holes could make a small fraction or the whole cosmological dark matter.     

Monochromatic neutrino signals from dark matter annihilation

Dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Sun to neutrino–antineutrino pairs are known to have potentially observable signatures in neutrino telescopes such as IceCube and KM3. We propose a model independent analysis in which the monochomatic neutrino signal from dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Sun is related to the direct detection spin-independent and spin-dependent cross sections rather than assuming cross sections from a particular model. We propagate the neutrinos from the center of the Sun to the Earth taking into account matter effects on neutrino oscillations. For DM capture in the Sun via a large spin-dependent DM capture cross section the discovery prospects of the IceCube experiment are found to be promising.     

Gamma-ray spectrum from gravitino dark matter decay

Gravitinos are very promising candidates for the cold dark matter of the Universe. Interestingly, to achieve a sufficiently long gravitino lifetime, R parity conservation is not required, thus preventing any dangerous cosmological influence of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. When R parity is violated, gravitinos decay into photons and other particles with a lifetime much longer than the age of the Universe, producing a diffuse gamma-ray flux with a characteristic spectrum that could be measured in future experiments, such as GLAST or AMS-02. In this Letter we compute the energy spectrum of photons from gravitino decay and discuss its main qualitative features.     

Asymmetric dark matter from hidden sector baryogenesis

We consider the production of asymmetric dark matter during hidden sector baryogenesis. We consider a particular supersymmetric model where the dark matter candidate has a number density approximately equal to the baryon number density, with a mass of the same scale as the b, c and τ. Both baryon asymmetry and dark matter are created at the same time in this model. We describe collider and direct detection signatures of this model.     

Gamma rays from heavy neutralino dark matter

We consider the gamma-ray spectrum from neutralino dark matter annihilations and show that internal bremsstrahlung of pair final states gives a previously neglected source of photons at energies near the mass of the neutralino. For masses larger than about 1 TeV, and for present day detector resolutions, this results in a characteristic signal that may dominate not only over the continuous spectrum from W fragmentation, but also over the gammagamma and gammaZ line signals which are known to give large rates for heavy neutralinos. Observational prospects thus seem promising.