Cosmic-ray Antiprotons Research Articles

Prospects of detecting dark matter through cosmic-ray antihelium with the antiproton constraints

Cosmic-ray (CR) antihelium is an important observable for dark matter (DM) indirect searches due to extremely low secondary backgrounds towards low energies. In a given DM model, the predicted CR antihelium flux is expected to be strongly correlated with that of CR antiprotons. In this work, we use the AMS-02 p̄/p data to constrain the DM annihilation cross section, and the ALICE data on the 3H̄ē and T̄ productions to determine the parameters in the coalescence model for anti-nucleus formation. The hadronic cross sections are estimated using Monte-Carlo event generators including EPOS-LHC and DPMJET. Based on these constraints, we make predictions for the maximal antihelium flux for typical DM annihilation final states, and perform a detailed analysis on the uncertainties due to the DM density profiles and CR propagation models. We find that the results are highly insensitive to both of them, but still significantly depend on the hadronization models in event generators. The prospects of detecting antihelium for the AMS-02 experiment is discussed. We show that with very optimistic assumptions, CR 3H̄ē is within the reach of the AMS-02 experiment. The 3H̄ē events which can be detected by AMS-02 are likely to have kinetic energy T ≳ 30 GeV, which is consistent with the preliminary AMS-02 search results. The events which can be observed by AMS-02 are likely to arise dominantly from secondary backgrounds rather than DM interactions.

A robust excess in the cosmic-ray antiproton spectrum: Implications for annihilating dark matter

An excess of $\sim$10-20 GeV cosmic-ray antiprotons has been identified in the spectrum reported by the AMS-02 Collaboration. The systematic uncertainties associated with this signal, however, have made it difficult to interpret these results. In this paper, we revisit the uncertainties associated with the time, charge and energy-dependent effects of solar modulation, the antiproton production cross section, and interstellar cosmic-ray propagation. After accounting for these uncertainties, we confirm the presence of a 4.7$\sigma$ antiproton excess, consistent with that arising from a $m_{\chi} \approx 64-88$ GeV dark matter particle annihilating to $b\bar{b}$ with a cross section of $\sigma v \simeq (0.8-5.2) \times 10^{-26}$ cm$^{3}$/s. If we allow for the stochastic acceleration of secondary antiprotons in supernova remnants, the data continues to favor a similar range of dark matter models ($m_{\chi}\approx 46-94$ GeV, $\sigma v \approx (0.7-3.8)\times 10^{-26}$ cm$^3/$s) with a significance of 3.3$\sigma$. The same range of dark matter models that are favored to explain the antiproton excess can also accommodate the excess of GeV-scale gamma rays observed from the Galactic Center.

Scrutinizing the evidence for dark matter in cosmic-ray antiprotons

Global fits of primary and secondary cosmic-ray (CR) fluxes measured by AMS-02 have great potential to study CR propagation models and search for exotic sources of antimatter such as annihilating dark matter (DM). Previous studies of AMS-02 antiprotons revealed a possible hint for a DM signal which, however, could be affected by systematic uncertainties. To test the robustness of such a DM signal, in this work we systematically study two important sources of uncertainties: the antiproton production cross sections needed to calculate the source spectra of secondary antiprotons and the potential correlations in the experimental data, so far not provided by the AMS-02 Collaboration. To investigate the impact of cross-section uncertainties we perform global fits of CR spectra including a covariance matrix determined from nuclear cross-section measurements. As an alternative approach, we perform a joint fit to both the CR and cross-section data. The two methods agree and show that cross-section uncertainties have a small effect on the CR fits and on the significance of a potential DM signal, which we find to be at the level of $3\sigma$. Correlations in the data can have a much larger impact. To illustrate this effect, we determine possible benchmark models for the correlations in a data-driven method. The inclusion of correlations strongly improves the constraints on the propagation model and, furthermore, enhances the significance of the DM signal up to above $5\sigma$. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of providing the covariance of the experimental data, which is needed to fully exploit their potential.

Revisit of cosmic ray antiprotons from dark matter annihilation with updated constraints on the background model from AMS-02 and collider data

We study the cosmic ray antiprotons with updated constraints on the propagation, proton injection, and solar modulation parameters based on the newest AMS-02 data near the Earth and Voyager data in the local interstellar space, and on the cross section of antiproton production due to proton-proton collisions based on new collider data. We use a Bayesian approach to properly consider the uncertainties of the model predictions of both the background and the dark matter (DM) annihilation components of antiprotons. We find that including an extra component of antiprotons from the annihilation of DM particles into a pair of quarks can improve the fit to the AMS-02 antiproton data considerably. The favored mass of DM particles is about 60∼100 GeV, and the annihilation cross section is just at the level of the thermal production of DM (⟨σv⟩ ∼ O(10−26) cm3 s−1).

Constraining the p¯/p ratio in TeV cosmic rays with observations of the Moon shadow by HAWC

An indirect measurement of the antiproton flux in cosmic rays is possible as the particles undergo deflection by the geomagnetic field. This effect can be measured by studying the deficit in the flux, or shadow, created by the Moon as it absorbs cosmic rays that are headed towards the Earth. The shadow is displaced from the actual position of the Moon due to geomagnetic deflection, which is a function of the energy and charge of the cosmic rays. The displacement provides a natural tool for momentum/charge discrimination that can be used to study the composition of cosmic rays. Using 33 months of data comprising more than 80 billion cosmic rays measured by the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, we have analyzed the Moon shadow to search for TeV antiprotons in cosmic rays. We present our first upper limits on the $\bar{p}/p$ fraction, which in the absence of any direct measurements, provide the tightest available constraints of $\sim1\%$ on the antiproton fraction for energies between 1 and 10 TeV.

Dark Matter Search in Space: Combined Analysis of Cosmic-Ray Antiproton-to-proton Flux Ratio and Positron Flux Measured by AMS-02

Abstract Dark matter searches in space have been carried out for many years. Measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) photons, charged antiparticles, and neutrinos are useful tools for dark matter indirect searches. The antiparticle energy spectra of CRs have several exciting features, such as the unexpected positron excess at E ∼ 10–500 GeV and the remarkably flattening antiproton/proton at E ∼ 60–450 GeV precisely measured by the AMS-02 experiment, which cannot be explained simultaneously by secondary production in the interstellar medium. In this work, we report a combined analysis of CR antiproton and positron spectra arising from dark matter on the top of a secondary production in a spatial-dependent propagation model. We discuss the systematic uncertainties from the antiproton production cross section using the two latest Monte Carlo generators, i.e., EPOS LHC and QGSJET-II-04m. We compare their results. In the case of EPOS LHC, we find that the dark matter pair annihilating into τ leptons channel with a 100% branching ratio and the p-wave annihilation cross section assumption is the only possible one-channel scenario to explain the data. On the other hand, there is not a single possible channel in the case of QGSJET-II-04m. We also propose possible two-channel scenarios based on these two Monte Carlo generators.

Constraining heavy dark matter with cosmic-ray antiprotons

Cosmic-ray observations provide a powerful probe of dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. In this paper we derive constraints on heavy dark matter from the recent precise AMS-02 antiproton data. We consider all possible annihilation channels into pairs of standard model particles. Furthermore, we interpret our results in the context of minimal dark matter, including higgsino, wino and quintuplet dark matter. We compare the cosmic-ray antiproton limits to limits from γ-ray observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and to limits from γ-ray and γ-line observations towards the Galactic center. While the latter limits are highly dependent on the dark matter density distribution and only exclude a thermal wino for cuspy profiles, the cosmic-ray limits are more robust, strongly disfavoring the thermal wino dark matter scenario even for a conservative estimate of systematic uncertainties.

Measurement of antiproton production in p–He collisions at LHCb to constrain the secondary cosmic antiproton flux

The flux of cosmic ray antiprotons is a powerful tool for indirect detection of dark matter. The sensitivity is limited by the uncertainty on the predicted antiproton flux from scattering of primary rays on the interstellar medium. This is, in turn, limited by the knowledge of production cross‐sections, notably in p–He scattering. Thanks to its internal gas target, the LHCb experiment performed the first measurement of antiproton production from collisions of LHC proton beams on He nuclei at rest. The results and prospects are presented.

Review of the results of measurements of the fluxes of the charged components of galactic cosmic rays in the experiments PAMELA and AMS-02

The paper provides a review of the results of precision measurements of the fluxes of different charged components of galactic cosmic rays (positrons and antiprotons, protons and helium nuclei) in modern experiments with magnetic spectrometers PAMELA and AMS-02, operating successfully for a few years (since 2006 and 2011, respectively) in Earth orbit. A priority of the PAMELA spectrometer scientific discoveries is noted. It is also noted that the measurements from the AMS-02 experiment are of high statistical accuracy and have reliably confirmed previous data, having been able to advance to a higher energy range.

Prescriptions on antiproton cross section data for precise theoretical antiproton flux predictions

After the breakthrough from the satellite-borne PAMELA detector, the flux of cosmic-ray (CR) antiprotons has been provided with unprecedented accuracy by AMS-02 on the International Space Station. Its data spans an energy range from below 1 GeV up to 400 GeV and most of the data points contain errors below the amazing level of 5%. The bulk of the antiproton flux is expected to be produced by the scatterings of CR protons and helium off interstellar hydrogen and helium atoms at rest. The modeling of these interactions, which requires the relevant production cross sections, induces an uncertainty in the determination of the antiproton source term that can even exceed the uncertainties in the CR $\bar{p}$ data itself. The aim of the present analysis is to determine the uncertainty required for $p+p\rightarrow \bar{p} + X$ cross section measurements such that the induced uncertainties on the $\bar{p}$ flux are at the same level. Our results are discussed both in the center-of-mass reference frame, suitable for collider experiments, and in the laboratory frame, as occurring in the Galaxy. We find that cross section data should be collected with accuracy better that few percent with proton beams from 10 GeV to 6 TeV and a pseudorapidity $\eta$ ranging from 2 to almost 8 or, alternatively, with $p_T$ from 0.04 to 2 GeV and $x_R$ from 0.02 to 0.7. Similar considerations hold for the $p$He production channel. The present collection of data is far from these requirements. Nevertheless, they could, in principle, be reached by fixed target experiments with beam energies in the reach of CERN accelerators.

Possible evidence for the stochastic acceleration of secondary antiprotons by supernova remnants

The antiproton-to-proton ratio in the cosmic-ray spectrum is a sensitive probe of new physics. Using recent measurements of the cosmic-ray antiproton and proton fluxes in the energy range of 1-1000 GeV, we study the contribution to the $\bar{p}/p$ ratio from secondary antiprotons that are produced and subsequently accelerated within individual supernova remnants. We consider several well-motivated models for cosmic-ray propagation in the interstellar medium and marginalize our results over the uncertainties related to the antiproton production cross section and the time-, charge-, and energy-dependent effects of solar modulation. We find that the increase in the $\bar{p}/p$ ratio observed at rigidities above $\sim$ 100 GV cannot be accounted for within the context of conventional cosmic-ray propagation models, but is consistent with scenarios in which cosmic-ray antiprotons are produced and subsequently accelerated by shocks within a given supernova remnant. In light of this, the acceleration of secondary cosmic rays in supernova remnants is predicted to substantially contribute to the cosmic-ray positron spectrum, accounting for a significant fraction of the observed positron excess.

Possible Dark Matter Annihilation Signal in the AMS-02 Antiproton Data.

Using the latest AMS-02 cosmic-ray antiproton flux data, we search for a potential dark matter annihilation signal. The background parameters about the propagation, source injection, and solar modulation are not assumed apriori but based on the results inferred from the recent B/C ratio and proton data measurements instead. The possible dark matter signal is incorporated into the model self-consistently under a Bayesian framework. Compared with the astrophysical background-only hypothesis, we find that a dark matter signal is favored. The rest mass of the dark matter particles is ∼20-80 GeV, and the velocity-averaged hadronic annihilation cross section is about (0.2-5)×10^{-26} cm^{3} s^{-1}, in agreement with that needed to account for the Galactic center GeV excess and/or the weak GeV emission from dwarf spheroidal galaxies Reticulum 2 and Tucana III. Tight constraints on the dark matter annihilation models are also set in a wide mass region.

Cosmic ray antiprotons at high energies

Cosmic ray antiprotons provide a powerful tool to probe dark matter annihilations in our galaxy. The sensitivity of this important channel is, however, diluted by sizable uncertainties in the secondary antiproton background. In this work, we improve the calculation of secondary antiproton production with a particular focus on the high energy regime. We employ the most recent collider data and identify a substantial increase of antiproton cross sections with energy. This increase is driven by the violation of Feynman scaling as well as by an enhanced strange hyperon production. The updated antiproton production cross sections are made publicly available for independent use in cosmic ray studies. In addition, we provide the correlation matrix of cross section uncertainties for the AMS-02 experiment. At high energies, the new cross sections improve the compatibility of the AMS-02 data with a pure secondary origin of antiprotons in cosmic rays.

A conservative assessment of the current constraints on dark matter annihilation from cosmic rays and CMB observations

In view of the current interest in combining different observations to constraint annihilating weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM), we examine the relation between the Sommerfeld effect at the recombination epoch and in the galactic halo. By considering an up-to-date collection of interpolations of cosmic rays (CRs) lepton data (AMS-02 2014, Fermi and PAMELA), as DM annihilation signals, we show that current CRs measurements and recent Planck 2015 constraints from CMB anisotropies almost overlap for DM masses of the order of few TeV, although great theoretical uncertainties afflict CRs and DM descriptions. Combining CRs fits we obtain proper minimal regions allowed by CMB observations, especially for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] annihilation channels, once assumed viable values of the efficiency factor for energy absorption at recombination: the results are consistent with those obtained by the Planck collaboration but allow a slightly larger overlap between CRs constraints from the lepton sector and CMB. Incoming AMS-02 measurements of CRs antiprotons will help to clarify the conundrum.

Measurements of cosmic-ray proton and helium spectra from the BESS-Polar long-duration balloon flights over Antarctica.

The BESS-Polar Collaboration measured the energy spectra of cosmic-ray protons and helium during two long-duration balloon flights over Antarctica in December 2004 and December 2007, at substantially different levels of solar modulation. Proton and helium spectra probe the origin and propagation history of cosmic rays in the galaxy, and are essential to calculations of the expected spectra of cosmic-ray antiprotons, positrons, and electrons from interactions of primary cosmic-ray nuclei with the interstellar gas, and to calculations of atmospheric muons and neutrinos. We report absolute spectra at the top of the atmosphere for cosmic-ray protons in the kinetic energy range 0.2-160 GeV and helium nuclei 0.15-80 GeV/nucleon. The corresponding magnetic rigidity ranges are 0.6-160 GV for protons and 1.1-160 GV for helium. These spectra are compared to measurements from previous BESS flights and from ATIC-2, PAMELA, and AMS-02. We also report the ratio of the proton and helium fluxes from 1.1 GV to 160 GV and compare to ratios from PAMELA and AMS-02.

Antideuterons from decaying gravitino dark matter

From the point of view of Dark Matter searches, antideuteron are an interesting species of cosmic rays. In the past eighteen years much progress has been done in the understanding of these cosmic rays but this did not translate into experimental efforts to actually detect these particles. In this work, starting from a specific case of dark matter candidate with relatively generic features, we study some sources of theoretical uncertainties and show that the margin of improvement beyond the limits already set by cosmic-ray antiproton are quite narrow and anyway unachievable for the next generation of experiments.

Secluded WIMPs, dark QED with massive photons, and the galactic center gamma-ray excess

We discuss a particular secluded WIMP dark matter model consisting of neutral fermions as the dark matter candidate and a Proca-Wentzel (PW) field as a mediator. In the model that we consider here, dark matter WIMPs interact with standard model (SM) particles only through the PW field of ∼MeV–multi-GeV mass particles. The interactions occur via a U(1)′ mediator, Vμ′,which couples to the SM by kinetic mixing with U(1) hypercharge bosons, Bμ′. One important difference between our model and other such models in the literature is the absence of an extra singlet scalar, so that the parameter with dimension of mass MV2is not related to a spontaneous symmetry breaking. This QED based model is also renormalizable. The mass scale of the mediator and the absence of the singlet scalar can lead to interesting astrophysical signatures. The dominant annihilation channels are different from those usually considered in previous work. We show that the GeV-energy γ-ray excess in the galactic center region, as derived from Fermi-LAT Gamma-ray Space Telescope data, can be attributed to such secluded dark matter WIMPs, given parameters of the model that are consistent with both the cosmological dark matter density and the upper limits on WIMP spin-independent elastic scattering. Secluded WIMP models are also consistent with suggested upper limits on a DM contribution to the cosmic-ray antiproton flux.

Cosmic ray antiprotons and the single source model

In view of the fact that the AMS-02 instrument has recently been used to make preliminary observations of the ratio of the antiprotons () to protons (P) in the primary cosmic radiation we have returned to our idea of signatures of a local recent supernova. We find that at the present level of accuracy there is no inconsistency between our predicitions for the ratio to some hundreds of GeV using the preliminary observations.

AMS-02 antiprotons from annihilating or decaying dark matter

Recently the AMS-02 experiment reported an excess of cosmic ray antiprotons over the expected astrophysical background. We interpret the excess as a signal from annihilating or decaying dark matter and find that the observed spectrum is well fitted by adding contributions from the annihilation or decay of dark matter with mass of O(TeV) or larger. Interestingly, Wino dark matter with mass of around 3 TeV, whose thermal relic abundance is consistent with present dark matter abundance, can explain the antiproton excess. We also discuss the implications for the decaying gravitino dark matter with R-parity violation.

What does the PAMELA antiproton spectrum tell us about dark matter?

Measurements of the cosmic ray antiproton spectrum can be used to search for contributions from annihilating dark matter and to constrain the dark matter annihilation cross section. Depending on the assumptions made regarding cosmic ray propagation in the Galaxy, such constraints can be quite stringent. We revisit this topic, utilizing a set of propagation models fit to the cosmic ray boron, carbon, oxygen and beryllium data. We derive upper limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section and find that when the cosmic ray propagation parameters are treated as nuisance parameters (as we argue is appropriate), the resulting limits are significantly less stringent than have been previously reported. We also note (as have several previous groups) that simple GALPROP-like diffusion-reacceleration models predict a spectrum of cosmic ray antiprotons that is in good agreement with PAMELA's observations above ∼ 5 GeV, but that significantly underpredict the flux at lower energies. Although the complexity of modeling cosmic ray propagation at GeV-scale energies makes it difficult to determine the origin of this discrepancy, we consider the possibility that the excess antiprotons are the result of annihilating dark matter. Suggestively, we find that this excess is best fit for mDM ∼ 35 GeV and σ v ∼ 10−26 cm3/s (to bb̄), in good agreement with the mass and cross section previously shown to be required to generate the gamma-ray excess observed from the Galactic Center.