Photoproduction of sterile scalars from cold dark matter through the photonic portal

TL;DR

This paper explores a new astrophysical process where energetic photons interact with cold dark matter to produce sterile scalars, which then decay into photon pairs, potentially creating observable photon cascades.

Contribution

It introduces a novel photoproduction mechanism of sterile scalars via the photonic portal in a hidden sector dark matter model, with calculations of cross-sections and decay rates.

Findings

Potential astrophysical photon cascades from dark matter interactions.

Quantitative estimates of production cross-section and decay rates.

Implications for gamma-ray observations from dark matter regions.

Abstract

Operating with the recently proposed model of hidden sector of the Universe, based on the idea of photonic portal, we consider a new possible astrophysical process of weak photoproduction of sterile scalars from the cold dark matter consisting of sterile Dirac fermions. Subsequently, these scalars weakly decay into secondary couples of photons. Then, primary photons, if energetic enough and interacting in sufficiently dense dark-matter configurations, may form secondary-photon cascades appearing as a new astrophysical phenomenon. Primary photons, probing the cold dark matter, may come e.g. from gamma bursts. We show how the cross-section for the photoproduction and the rate for the decay can be calculated (in the centre-of-mass frame and at rest, respectively, for simplicity).