Constraining Strong Baryon-Dark Matter Interactions with Primordial Nucleosynthesis and Cosmic Rays

Abstract

Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) was introduced by Spergel & Steinhardt to address possible discrepancies between collisionless dark matter simulations and observations on scales of less than 1 Mpc. We examine the case in which dark matter particles not only have strong self-interactions but also have strong interactions with baryons. The presence of such interactions will have direct implications for nuclear and particle astrophysics. Among these are a change in the predicted abundances from big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) and the flux of gamma-rays produced by the decay of neutral pions which originate in collisions between dark matter and Galactic cosmic rays (CR). From these effects we constrain the strength of the baryon--dark matter interactions through the ratio of baryon - dark matter interaction cross section to dark matter mass, $s$. We find that BBN places a weak upper limit to this ratio $<10^{8}c{m}^2/g$. CR-SIDM interactions, however, limit the possible DM-baryon cross section to $<5\times 10^{-3}c{m}^2/g$; this rules out an energy-independent interaction, but not one which falls with center-of-mass velocity as $s\propto 1/v$ or steeper.

17 pages, 2 figures; plain LaTeX. To appear in PRD

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