Non-Thermal Production of WIMPs, Cosmic $e^\pm$ Excesses and $\gamma$-rays from the Galactic Center

TL;DR

This paper introduces a leptophilic dark matter model with non-thermal production from cosmic string decay, explaining cosmic ray excesses and gamma-ray observations while addressing the dark matter density profile.

Contribution

It proposes a novel dark matter sector with U(1)' symmetry, linking cosmic string decay to non-thermal WIMP production and cosmic ray signals, and predicts a core-like density profile.

Findings

Dark matter produced non-thermally from cosmic string decay explains cosmic ray excesses.

The model predicts a constant density core, reducing gamma-ray flux from the Galactic center.

The scenario satisfies observational constraints from gamma-ray telescopes.

Abstract

In this paper we propose a dark matter model and study aspects of its phenomenology. Our model is based on a new dark matter sector with a U(1)' gauge symmetry plus a discrete symmetry added to the Standard Model of particle physics. The new fields of the dark matter sector have no hadronic charges and couple only to leptons. Our model can not only give rise to the observed neutrino mass hierarchy, but can also generate the baryon number asymmetry via non-thermal leptogenesis. The breaking of the new U(1)' symmetry produces cosmic strings. The dark matter particles are produced non-thermally from cosmic string loop decay which allows one to obtain sufficiently large annihilation cross sections to explain the observed cosmic ray positron and electron fluxes recently measured by the PAMELA, ATIC, PPB-BETS, Fermi-LAT, and HESS experiments while maintaining the required overall dark matter energy density. The high velocity of the dark matter particles from cosmic string loop decay leads to a low phase space density and thus to a dark matter profile with a constant density core in contrast to what happens in a scenario with thermally produced cold dark matter where the density keeps rising towards the center. As a result, the flux of gamma rays radiated from the final leptonic states of dark matter annihilation from the Galactic center is suppressed and satisfies the constraints from the HESS gamma-ray observations.