Effective field theory and keV lines from dark matter

Abstract

We survey operators that can lead to a keV photon line from dark matter decay or annihilation. We are motivated in part by recent claims of an unexplained 3.5 keV line in galaxy clusters and in Andromeda, but our results could apply to any hypothetical line observed in this energy range. We find that given the amount of flux that is observable, explanations in terms of decay are more plausible than annihilation, at least if the annihilation is directly to Standard Model states rather than intermediate particles. The decay case can be explained by a scalar or pseudoscalar field coupling to photons suppressed by a scale not far below the reduced Planck mass, which can be taken as a tantalizing hint of high-scale physics. The scalar case is particularly interesting from the effective field theory viewpoint, and we discuss it at some length. Because of a quartically divergent mass correction, naturalness strongly suggests the theory should be cut off at or below the 1000 TeV scale. The most plausible such natural UV completion would involve supersymmetry. These bottom-up arguments reproduce expectations from top-down considerations of the physics of moduli. A keV line could also arise from the decay of a sterile neutrino, in which case a renormalizable UV completion exists and no direct inference about high-scale physics is possible.

arXiv commentv2: Minor correction, references and comments on LARGE volume string compactifications added

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• Shining Light on Polarizable Dark Particles
• Return of the X-rays: A New Hope for Fermionic Dark Matter at the keV Scale
• Nonabelian dark matter models for 3.5 keV X-rays
• A Couplet from Flavored Dark Matter
• 3.55 keV line in Minimal Decaying Dark Matter scenarios
• Displaced Vertices from X-ray Lines
• 3.5 keV X-ray line and R-Parity Conserving Supersymmetry
• Common Origin of 3.55 keV X-Ray Line and Galactic Center Gamma Ray Excess in a Radiative Neutrino Mass Model
• Structure formation in a mixed dark matter model with decaying sterile neutrino: the 3.5 keV X-ray line and the Galactic substructure
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• SUSY's Ladder: Reframing Sequestering at Large Volume
• Anomalous X-Ray Galactic signal from 7 keV spin-$3/2$ dark matter decay
• A sensitive search for unknown spectral emission lines in the diffuse X-ray background with XMM-Newton
• 3.5 keV X-ray Line Signal from Dark Matter Decay in Local $U(1{)}_{B-L}$ Extension of Zee-Babu Model
• Supersymmetric Higgs-portal and X-ray lines