Indirect detection of light neutralino dark matter in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract

We explore the prospects for indirect detection of neutralino dark matter in supersymmetric models with an extended Higgs sector (next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, or NMSSM). We compute, for the first time, one-loop amplitudes for NMSSM neutralino pair annihilation into two photons and two gluons, and point out that extra diagrams (with respect to the minimal supersymmetric standard model, or MSSM), featuring a potentially light $CP$-odd Higgs boson exchange, can strongly enhance these radiative modes. Expected signals in neutrino telescopes due to the annihilation of relic neutralinos in the Sun and in the Earth are evaluated, as well as the prospects of detection of a neutralino annihilation signal in space-based gamma-ray, antiproton and positron search experiments, and at low-energy antideuteron searches. We find that in the low mass regime the signals from capture in the Earth are enhanced compared to the MSSM, and that NMSSM neutralinos have a remote possibility of affecting solar dynamics. Also, antimatter experiments are an excellent probe of galactic NMSSM dark matter. We also find enhanced two-photon decay modes that make the possibility of the detection of a monochromatic gamma-ray line within the NMSSM more promising than in the MSSM, although likely below the sensitivity of next generation gamma-ray telescopes.