Current and future gamma-ray searches for dark-matter annihilation beyond the unitarity limit

Abstract

For decades, searches for electroweak-scale dark matter (DM) have been performed without a definitive detection. This lack of success may hint that DM searches have focused on the wrong mass range. A proposed candidate beyond the canonical parameter space is ultra-heavy DM (UHDM). In this work, we consider indirect UHDM annihilation searches for masses between 30 TeV and 30 PeV, extending well beyond the unitarity limit at $\sim$100 TeV, and discuss the basic requirements for DM models in this regime. We explore the feasibility of detecting the annihilation signature, and the expected reach for UHDM with current and future Very-High-Energy (VHE; $>$ 100 GeV) $\gamma$-ray observatories. Specifically, we focus on three reference instruments: two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope arrays, modeled on VERITAS and CTA-North, and one Extended Air Shower array, motivated by HAWC. With reasonable assumptions on the instrument response functions and background rate, we find a set of UHDM parameters (mass and cross section) for which a $\gamma$-ray signature can be detected by the aforementioned observatories. We further compute the expected upper limits for each experiment. With realistic exposure times, the three instruments can probe DM across a wide mass range. At the lower end, it can still have a point-like cross section, while at higher masses the DM could have a geometric cross section, indicative of compositeness.

arXiv comment14 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (45)

• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• A Brief Introduction to PYTHIA 8.1
• A History of Dark Matter
• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• Precise Relic WIMP Abundance and its Impact on Searches for Dark Matter Annihilation
• Analytical Models For Galactic Nuclei
• The major upgrade of the MAGIC telescopes, Part II: A performance study using observations of the Crab Nebula
• VERITAS: the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System
• Weak Corrections are Relevant for Dark Matter Indirect Detection
• Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
• A review of indirect searches for particle dark matter
• A Complete Spectroscopic Survey of the Milky Way Satellite Segue 1: The Darkest Galaxy
• Science with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Monte Carlo design studies for the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• 3HWC: The Third HAWC Catalog of Very-High-Energy Gamma-ray Sources
• Dwarf galaxy annihilation and decay emission profiles for dark matter experiments
• Dark Matter Searches at Colliders
• Bound-state formation for thermal relic dark matter and unitarity
• Dark Matter Spectra from the Electroweak to the Planck Scale
• PeV-Scale Dark Matter as a Thermal Relic of a Decoupled Sector
• Dark Matter Constraints from a Joint Analysis of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Observations with VERITAS
• Dark Matter Limits From Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with The HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
• TeV-Scale Thermal WIMPs: Unitarity and its Consequences
• Space- and Ground-Based Gamma-Ray Astrophysics
• Spherical Jeans analysis for dark matter indirect detection in dwarf spheroidal galaxies - Impact of physical parameters and triaxiality
• A Complete Spectroscopic Survey of the Milky Way satellite Segue 1: Dark matter content, stellar membership and binary properties from a Bayesian analysis
• The Relic Abundance of Long-lived Heavy Colored Particles
• Consequences of DM/antiDM Oscillations for Asymmetric WIMP Dark Matter
• Homeopathic Dark Matter, or how diluted heavy substances produce high energy cosmic rays
• Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
• Prospects for Heavy WIMP Dark Matter with CTA: the Wino and Higgsino
• Asymmetric thermal-relic dark matter: Sommerfeld-enhanced freeze-out, annihilation signals and unitarity bounds
• A Search for Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo with HAWC
• Searches for gamma-ray lines and `pure WIMP' spectra from Dark Matter annihilations in dwarf galaxies with H.E.S.S
• Structure Formation Models Weaken Limits on WIMP Dark Matter from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Gluequark Dark Matter
• Combined searches for dark matter in dwarf spheroidal galaxies observed with the MAGIC telescopes, including new data from Coma Berenices and Draco
• Thermal Relic Dark Matter Beyond the Unitarity Limit
• Contamination of stellar-kinematic samples and uncertainty about dark matter annihilation profiles in ultrafaint dwarf galaxies: the example of Segue I
• First search for dark matter annihilations in the Earth with the IceCube Detector
• Optimized analysis method for indirect dark matter searches with Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes
• Dark quarkonium formation in the early universe
• Unitarity limits on thermal dark matter in (non-)standard cosmologies
• Prospect for dark matter signatures from dwarf galaxies by LHAASO
• Search for secluded dark matter towards the Galactic Centre with the ANTARES neutrino telescope

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Search for Ultraheavy Dark Matter from Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with VERITAS
• Constraining decaying very heavy dark matter from galaxy clusters with 14 year Fermi-LAT data
• Toward the ultimate reach of current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and their sensitivity to TeV dark matter
• Search for heavy dark matter from dwarf spheroidal galaxies: leveraging cascades and subhalo models
• Probing superheavy dark matter through lunar radio observations of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos and the impacts of neutrino cascades
• Cosmic Ray Antihelium from a Strongly Coupled Dark Sector
• Prospects for $\gamma$-ray observations of the Perseus galaxy cluster with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Searching for dark-matter induced neutrino signals in dwarf spheroidal galaxies using 10 years of IceCube public data
• LHAASO Galactic Plane $\gamma$-rays Strongly Constrain Heavy Dark Matter