Abstract
Recent observations by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) have tentatively detected a handful of cosmic-ray antihelium events. Such events have long been considered as smoking-gun evidence for new physics, because astrophysical antihelium production is expected to be negligible. However, the dark-matter-induced antihelium flux is also expected to fall below current sensitivities, particularly in light of existing antiproton constraints. Here, we demonstrate that a previously neglected standard model process-the production of antihelium through the displaced-vertex decay of Λ[over ¯]_{b}-baryons-can significantly boost the dark matter induced antihelium flux. This process can entirely dominate the production of high-energy antihelium nuclei, increasing the rate of detectable AMS-02 events by 2 orders of magnitude.
Highlights
Recent observations by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) have tentatively detected a handful of cosmic-ray antihelium events
Introduction.—The detection of massive cosmic-ray antinuclei has long been considered a holy grail for WIMP dark matter searches [1,2]
Primary cosmic rays mostly consist of protons and nuclei that are accelerated by astrophysical sources like supernovae
Summary
Recent observations by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) have tentatively detected a handful of cosmic-ray antihelium events. Dark matter models are expected to produce ≪ 1 detectable antihelium event [11,12]. The antihelium spectrum depends on the boost-factor imparted to the Λb, which depends on the dark matter mass and final state.
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