The positron excess as a smoking gun for dynamical dark matter?

Keith R. Dienes, Jason Kumar, Brooks Thomas

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

One of the most puzzling aspects of recent data from the AMS-02 experiment is an apparent rise in the cosmic-ray positron fraction as a function of energy. This feature is observed out to energies of approximately 350 GeV. One explanation of these results interprets the extra positrons as arising from the decays of dark-matter particles. This in turn typically requires that such particles have rather heavy TeV-scale masses and not undergo simple two-body decays to leptons. In this talk, by contrast, we show that Dynamical Dark Matter (DDM) can not only match existing AMS-02 data on the positron excess, but also accomplish this feat with significantly lighter dark-matter constituents undergoing simple two-body decays to leptons. We also demonstrate that the Dynamical Dark Matter framework makes a fairly robust prediction that the positron fraction should level off and then remain roughly constant out to approximately 1 TeV, without experiencing any sharp downturns. Thus, if we interpret the positron excess in terms of decaying dark matter, the existence of a plateau in the positron fraction at energies less than 1 TeV may be taken as a "smoking gun" of Dynamical Dark Matter.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationWorkshop on Dark Matter, Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, CETUP* 2013 - 7th International Conference on Interconnections between Particle Physics and Cosmology, PPC* 2013
PublisherAmerican Institute of Physics Inc.
Pages22-33
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9780735412385
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
EventWorkshop on Dark Matter, Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, CETUP* 2013 and 7th International Conference on Interconnections Between Particle Physics and Cosmology, PPC* 2013 - Lead/Deadwood, SD, United States
Duration: Jun 24 2013Jul 26 2013

Publication series

NameAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume1604
ISSN (Print)0094-243X
ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

Other

OtherWorkshop on Dark Matter, Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics, CETUP* 2013 and 7th International Conference on Interconnections Between Particle Physics and Cosmology, PPC* 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLead/Deadwood, SD
Period6/24/137/26/13

Keywords

  • AMS
  • Dynamical Dark Matter
  • cosmic ray
  • flux
  • positron

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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