Dark Matter Annihilation Can Produce a Detectable Antihelium Flux through ${\bar{\Lambda }}_b$ Decays

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 ${\bar{\Lambda }}_b$-baryons -- can significantly boost the dark matter induced antihelium flux. This process can triple the standard prompt-production of antihelium, and more importantly, entirely dominate the production of the high-energy antihelium nuclei reported by AMS-02.

arXiv comment4 pages, 3 figures. Appendix adds 3 pages and 2 figures

References in corpus (43)

• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• A Theory of Dark Matter
• Tuning PYTHIA 8.1: the Monash 2013 Tune
• Astrophysical Signatures of Secluded Dark Matter
• The Characterization of the Gamma-Ray Signal from the Central Milky Way: A Compelling Case for Annihilating Dark Matter
• A novel determination of the local dark matter density
• Novel dark matter constraints from antiprotons in the light of AMS-02
• Antideuterons as a Signature of Supersymmetric Dark Matter
• Possible dark matter annihilation signal in the AMS-02 antiproton data
• Dynamical constraints on the dark matter distribution in the Milky Way
• On the estimation of the Local Dark Matter Density using the rotation curve of the Milky Way
• A Precision Search for WIMPs with Charged Cosmic Rays
• Search for Cosmic-Ray Antideuterons
• Production of deuterons, tritons, ${}^3$He nuclei and their anti-nuclei in pp collisions at $\sqrt{\text{s}}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV
• Flux of light antimatter nuclei near earth, induced by Cosmic Rays in the Galaxy and in the atmosphere
• A Predictive Analytic Model for the Solar Modulation of Cosmic Rays
• Antideuteron Sensitivity for the GAPS Experiment
• Prospects to verify a possible dark matter hint in cosmic antiprotons with antideuterons and antihelium
• Low energy antideuterons: shedding light on dark matter
• Cosmic rays, anti-helium, and an old navy spotlight
• Where do the AMS-02 anti-helium events come from?
• The Production of Anti-Matter in our Galaxy
• Inclusive b-jet production in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
• Deuteron and Anti-deuteron Production in e+e- Collisions at the Z Resonance
• Antihelium from Dark Matter
• Enhanced anti-deuteron Dark Matter signal and the implications of PAMELA
• Dark matter or correlated errors: Systematics of the AMS-02 antiproton excess
• Cosmic-ray Antinuclei as Messengers of New Physics: Status and Outlook for the New Decade
• Dark matter searches with cosmic antideuterons: status and perspectives
• Anti-helium from Dark Matter annihilations
• Anti-deuterons from heavy Dark Matter
• Origin of the tentative AMS antihelium events
• General Analysis of Antideuteron Searches for Dark Matter
• Antideuterons from dark matter annihilations and hadronization model dependence
• Antideuterons in cosmic rays: sources and discovery potential
• Revisiting cosmic ray antinuclei fluxes with a new coalescence model
• Deuteron and Antideuteron Production Simulation in Cosmic-ray Interactions
• Anti-Deuterons and Anti-Helium Nuclei from Annihilating Dark Matter
• Large-scale Simulations of Antihelium Production in Cosmic-ray Interactions
• Observation of the ${\Lambda }_b^0\to {\chi }_{c1}(3872)p{K}^{-}$ decay
• A Measurement of the Product Branching Ratio f(b->Lambda_b).BR(Lambda_b->Lambda X) in Z0 Decays
• Observation of the ${\Lambda }_{\mathrm{b}}^0$ $\to$ J/$\psi \Lambda \varphi$ decay in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV
• How to produce antinuclei from dark matter

Cited by in corpus (12)

• The ALICE experiment: a journey through QCD
• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter
• Cosmic antihelium-3 nuclei sensitivity of the GAPS experiment
• Reevaluation of the cosmic antideuteron flux from cosmic-ray interactions and from exotic sources
• Cosmic Ray Antihelium from a Strongly Coupled Dark Sector
• Fireball anti-nucleosynthesis
• AMS-02 antiprotons and dark matter: Trimmed hints and robust bounds
• Helium identification with LHCb
• Enhanced cosmic-ray antihelium production from dark matter annihilation through light mediators
• Exploring light nuclei production at RHIC and LHC energies with A Multi-Phase Transport model and a coalescence afterburner
• $\overline{\text{D}}$arkRayNet: Emulation of cosmic-ray antideuteron fluxes from dark matter
• Antihelium-3 Sensitivity for the GRAMS Experiment