Constraints on Hadronically Decaying Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper derives model-independent constraints on the stability of hadronically decaying dark matter using cosmic-ray antiproton data and explores the complementarity with gamma-ray line searches.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive, model-independent bounds on dark matter decay lifetimes in hadronic channels considering various decay modes.

Findings

Lower bounds on dark matter decay lifetimes in hadronic channels

Constraints derived from cosmic-ray antiproton measurements

Complementary limits from gamma-ray line searches

Abstract

We present general constraints on dark matter stability in hadronic decay channels derived from measurements of cosmic-ray antiprotons.We analyze various hadronic decay modes in a model-independent manner by examining the lowest-order decays allowed by gauge and Lorentz invariance for scalar and fermionic dark matter particles and present the corresponding lower bounds on the partial decay lifetimes in those channels. We also investigate the complementarity between hadronic and gamma-ray constraints derived from searches for monochromatic lines in the sky, which can be produced at the quantum level if the dark matter decays into quark-antiquark pairs at leading order.