A Theory of Dark Matter

TL;DR

The paper presents a unified dark matter framework in which a GeV-scale dark force induces Sommerfeld enhancements that boost present-day annihilation into leptons, thereby addressing PAMELA/ATIC and related observations without disturbing early-universe relic abundance. By embedding dark matter in a non-Abelian dark sector, it naturally generates MeV-scale state splittings that realize XDM and iDM phenomenology, explaining INTEGRAL and DAMA signals while remaining consistent with direct-detection constraints. The authors emphasize the role of dark-sector substructure in amplifying signals in low-velocity environments and discuss rich implications for Planck, Fermi/GLAST, and the LHC, plus the need for a minimal, testable parameter set. Overall, the work links multiple astrophysical anomalies through a coherent leptophilic, multiplet dark sector with observable implications across cosmology, astrophysics, and collider experiments.

Abstract

We propose a comprehensive theory of dark matter that explains the recent proliferation of unexpected observations in high-energy astrophysics. Cosmic ray spectra from ATIC and PAMELA require a WIMP with mass M_chi ~ 500 - 800 GeV that annihilates into leptons at a level well above that expected from a thermal relic. Signals from WMAP and EGRET reinforce this interpretation. Taken together, we argue these facts imply the presence of a GeV-scale new force in the dark sector. The long range allows a Sommerfeld enhancement to boost the annihilation cross section as required, without altering the weak scale annihilation cross section during dark matter freezeout in the early universe. If the dark matter annihilates into the new force carrier, phi, its low mass can force it to decay dominantly into leptons. If the force carrier is a non-Abelian gauge boson, the dark matter is part of a multiplet of states, and splittings between these states are naturally generated with size alpha m_phi ~ MeV, leading to the eXciting dark matter (XDM) scenario previously proposed to explain the positron annihilation in the galactic center observed by the INTEGRAL satellite. Somewhat smaller splittings would also be expected, providing a natural source for the parameters of the inelastic dark matter (iDM) explanation for the DAMA annual modulation signal. Since the Sommerfeld enhancement is most significant at low velocities, early dark matter halos at redshift ~10 potentially produce observable effects on the ionization history of the universe, and substructure is more detectable than with a conventional WIMP. Moreover, the low velocity dispersion of dwarf galaxies and Milky Way subhalos can greatly increase the substructure annihilation signal.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Contours for the Sommerfeld enhancement factor $S$ as a function of the mass ratio $m_{\phi}/m_{\chi}$ and the coupling constant $\lambda$, $\sigma = 150$ km/s.
• Figure 2: Contours for the Sommerfeld enhancement factor $S$ as a function of the mass ratio $m_{\phi}/m_{\chi}$ and the coupling constant $\lambda$, at a temperature $T_{\rm{CMB}}=m_\chi/20$ (the enhancement is integrated over a Boltzmann distribution with $\sigma = 0.3 c$).
• Figure 3: The annihilation diagrams $\chi \chi \rightarrow \phi \phi$ both with (a) and without (b) the Sommerfeld enhancements.
• Figure 4: Spectrum of exciting dark matter.
• Figure 5: Contours for the Sommerfeld enhancement factor $S$ as a function of the mass ratio $m_{\phi}/m_{\chi}$ and the coupling constant $\lambda$, $\sigma = 10$ km/s.