Constraining heavy dark matter with cosmic-ray antiprotons

TL;DR

This paper uses precise AMS-02 antiproton data to set robust constraints on heavy dark matter annihilation, especially disfavoring the thermal wino scenario, and compares these limits with gamma-ray observations.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of heavy dark matter constraints from cosmic-ray antiprotons considering all annihilation channels and minimal dark matter models.

Findings

Cosmic-ray antiproton data strongly disfavor thermal wino dark matter.

Antiproton limits are more robust than gamma-ray constraints for heavy dark matter.

Results are consistent across different dark matter density profiles.

Abstract

Cosmic-ray observations provide a powerful probe of dark matter annihilation in the Galaxy. In this paper we derive constraints on heavy dark matter from the recent precise AMS-02 antiproton data. We consider all possible annihilation channels into pairs of standard model particles. Furthermore, we interpret our results in the context of minimal dark matter, including higgsino, wino and quintuplet dark matter. We compare the cosmic-ray antiproton limits to limits from $\gamma$-ray observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and to limits from $\gamma$-ray and $\gamma$-line observations towards the Galactic center. While the latter limits are highly dependent on the dark matter density distribution and only exclude a thermal wino for cuspy profiles, the cosmic-ray limits are more robust, strongly disfavoring the thermal wino dark matter scenario even for a conservative estimate of systematic uncertainties.