Cosmic positron excess: is the dark matter solution a good bet?

TL;DR

The paper critically evaluates the dark matter explanation for the cosmic positron excess, concluding that natural dark matter candidates are unlikely to account for the observed signal without contrived properties, emphasizing the need for more complex detection methods.

Contribution

It provides a critical reassessment of dark matter's role in the positron excess, highlighting the unlikely natural fit and advocating for advanced detection strategies.

Findings

Standard astrophysical background conditions are not met.

Dark matter would require contrived properties to explain the positron excess.

Most natural dark matter candidates are unlikely to be observed via cosmic antimatter.

Abstract

The recent observation by the PAMELA satellite of a rising positron fraction up to $\sim$ 100 GeV has triggered a considerable amount of putative interpretations in terms of dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay. Here, we make a critical reassessment of such a possibility, recalling the elementary conditions with respect to the standard astrophysical background that would make it likely, showing that they are not fulfilled. Likewise, we argue that, as now well accepted, DM would need somewhat contrived properties to contribute significantly to the observed positron signal, even when including e.g. clumpiness effects. This means that most of natural DM candidates arising in particle physics beyond the standard model are not expected to be observed in the cosmic antimatter spectrum, unfortunately. However, this does not prevent them from remaining excellent DM candidates, this only points towards the crucial need of developing much more complex detection strategies (multimessenger, multiwavelength, multiscale searches).