Weak Corrections are Relevant for Dark Matter Indirect Detection

TL;DR

Electroweak corrections significantly modify the energy spectra of particles from dark matter annihilation or decay at high masses, making all stable particles appear in the final spectrum regardless of the initial process.

Contribution

This work demonstrates that electroweak corrections are crucial for accurate dark matter indirect detection predictions at high masses, a factor previously underestimated.

Findings

Electroweak corrections open new final state channels.

All stable particles appear in the spectra regardless of primary channels.

Corrections are model independent.

Abstract

The computation of the energy spectra of Standard Model particles originated from the annihilation/decay of dark matter particles is of primary importance in indirect searches of dark matter. We compute how the inclusion of electroweak corrections significantly alter such spectra when the mass M of dark matter particles is larger than the electroweak scale: soft electroweak gauge bosons are copiously radiated opening new channels in the final states which otherwise would be forbidden if such corrections are neglected. All stable particles are therefore present in the final spectrum, independently of the primary channel of dark matter annihilation/decay. Such corrections are model independent.