Indirect Searches for Decaying Dark Matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews observational constraints on the lifetime of dark matter particles in the GeV-TeV range, focusing on cosmic antimatter, gamma-ray, and neutrino fluxes, and discusses theoretical models of decaying dark matter.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of current observational limits and theoretical scenarios for decaying dark matter particles in the GeV-TeV mass range.

Findings

Stringent limits on dark matter lifetime from cosmic ray observations

Identification of promising signals in gamma-ray and neutrino data

Discussion of models predicting decaying dark matter with long lifetimes

Abstract

Numerous observations point towards the existence of an unknown elementary particle with no electromagnetic interactions, a large population of which was presumably produced in the early stages of the history of the Universe. This so-called dark matter has survived until the present day, accounting for the 26% of the present energy budget of the Universe. It remains an open question whether the particles comprising the dark matter are absolutely stable or whether they have a finite but very long lifetime, which is a possibility since there is no known general principle guaranteeing perfect stability. In this article we review the observational limits on the lifetime of dark matter particles with mass in the GeV-TeV range using observations of the cosmic fluxes of antimatter, gamma-rays and neutrinos. We also examine some theoretically motivated scenarios that provide decaying dark matter candidates.