Lines and Boxes: Unmasking Dynamical Dark Matter through Correlations in the MeV Gamma-Ray Spectrum

Abstract

Identifying signatures of dark matter at indirect-detection experiments is generally more challenging for scenarios involving non-minimal dark sectors such as Dynamical Dark Matter (DDM) than for scenarios involving a single dark particle. This additional difficulty arises because the partitioning of the total dark-matter abundance across an ensemble of different constituent particles with different masses tends to "smear" the injection spectra of photons and other cosmic-ray particles that are produced via dark-matter annihilation or decay. As a result, the imprints of the dark sector on these cosmic-ray flux spectra typically take the form of continuum features rather than sharp peaks or lines. In this paper, however, we identify an unambiguous signature of non-minimal dark sectors such as DDM which can overcome these issues and potentially be observed at gamma-ray telescopes operating in the MeV range. We discuss the specific situations in which this signature can arise, and demonstrate that this signature can be exploited in order to significantly enhance our ability to resolve the unique spectral features of DDM and other non-minimal dark sectors at future gamma-ray facilities.

21 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures, 1 table

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• Multi-component dark matter from a hidden gauged SU(3)
• Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies
• Dynamical Dark Matter, MATHUSLA, and the Lifetime Frontier
• Boxes, Boosts, and Energy Duality: Understanding the Galactic-Center Gamma-Ray Excess through Dynamical Dark Matter
• Prospects for indirect MeV Dark Matter detection with Gamma Rays in light of Cosmic Microwave Background Constraints
• Signal from sterile neutrino dark matter in extra $U(1)$ model at direct detection experiment
• Dynamical Dark Matter from Thermal Freeze-Out
• Non-Minimal Dark Sectors: Mediator-Induced Decay Chains and Multi-Jet Collider Signatures
• Constraining Dark-Matter Ensembles with Supernova Data
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• Kaluza-Klein Towers in the Early Universe: Phase Transitions, Relic Abundances, and Applications to Axion Cosmology
• Indirect Detection of Sub-GeV Dark Matter Coupling to Quarks
• Novel Spectral Features in MeV Gamma Rays from Dark Matter
• Indirect Detection of Low-mass Dark Matter Through the ${\pi }^0$ and $\eta$ Windows
• Continuum Dark Matter
• The Forward Physics Facility at the High-Luminosity LHC
• Energy peaks: a high energy physics outlook