Higgs in Space!

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for dark matter annihilations to produce Higgs bosons, resulting in gamma-ray lines detectable by telescopes, within models featuring strong couplings between the dark sector and the Standard Model.

Contribution

It introduces a model where dark matter annihilation produces gamma-ray lines via Higgs and Z' channels, linking dark matter properties to observable gamma-ray signals.

Findings

Dark matter annihilation can produce gamma-ray lines from Higgs and Z' channels.

Such gamma-ray lines are detectable by Fermi/GLAST and ground-based telescopes.

The model predicts a forest of gamma-ray lines from top quark loops.

Abstract

We consider the possibility that the Higgs can be produced in dark matter annihilations, appearing as a line in the spectrum of gamma rays at an energy determined by the masses of the WIMP and the Higgs itself. We argue that this phenomenon occurs generally in models in which the the dark sector has large couplings to the most massive states of the SM and provide a simple example inspired by the Randall-Sundrum vision of dark matter, whose 4d dual corresponds to electroweak symmetry-breaking by strong dynamics which respect global symmetries that guarantee a stable WIMP. The dark matter is a Dirac fermion that couples to a Z' acting as a portal to the Standard Model through its strong coupling to top quarks. Annihilation into light standard model degrees of freedom is suppressed and generates a feeble continuum spectrum of gamma rays. Loops of top quarks mediate annihilation into gamma Z, gamma h, and gamma Z', providing a forest of lines in the spectrum. Such models can be probed by the Fermi/GLAST satellite and ground-based Air Cherenkov telescopes.