Cosmic Ray Anomalies and Dark Matter Annihilation to Muons via a Higgs Portal Hidden Sector

TL;DR

This paper proposes scalar hidden sector dark matter models with Higgs portal couplings to explain cosmic ray excesses, involving light scalars decaying to muons, with two variants addressing different enhancement mechanisms and energy ranges.

Contribution

It introduces novel scalar hidden sector dark matter models with Higgs portal interactions, explaining cosmic ray excesses via muon decay channels and considering both non-thermal and Sommerfeld enhancement scenarios.

Findings

Models can explain positron excesses without antiprotons.

Light scalars decay predominantly to muons, fitting cosmic ray data.

TeV-scale dark matter masses are compatible with observations.

Abstract

Annihilating dark matter (DM) models based on a scalar hidden sector with Higgs portal-like couplings to the Standard Model are considered as a possible explanation for recently observed cosmic ray excesses. Two versions of the model are studied, one with non-thermal DM as the origin of the boost factor and one with Sommerfeld enhancement. In the case of non-thermal DM, four hidden sector scalars which transform under a U(1)_{X} symmetry are added. The heaviest scalars decouple and later decay to DM scalars, so providing the boost factor necessary to explain the present DM annihilation rate. The mass of the annihilating scalars is limited to < 600 GeV for the model to remain perturbative. U(1)_{X} breaking to Z_2 at the electroweak transition mixes light O(100) MeV hidden sector scalars with the Higgs. The DM scalars annihilate to these light scalars, which subsequently decay to two mu^{+} mu^{-} pairs via Higgs mixing, so generating a positron excess without antiprotons. Decay to \mu^{+}\mu^{-} rather than e^{+}e^{-} is necessary to ensure a fast enough light scalar decay rate to evade light scalar domination at nucleosynthesis. In the version with Sommerfeld enhancement only three new scalars are necessary. TeV scale DM masses can be accomodated, allowing both the higher energy electron plus positron excess and the lower energy PAMELA positron excess to be explained. DM annihilates to two \mu^{+}\mu^{-} pairs as in the non-thermal model. This annihilation mode may be favoured by recent observations of the electron plus positron excess by FERMI and HESS.