Cosmic Ray Antihelium from a Strongly Coupled Dark Sector

TL;DR

This paper proposes that a strongly coupled dark sector could significantly increase cosmic-ray antinuclei flux, potentially explaining AMS-02's tentative antihelium detections as evidence of new physics.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism where a strongly coupled dark sector enhances antinucleus production, offering a novel explanation for observed cosmic-ray antihelium events.

Findings

Dark matter annihilation/decay can boost antihelium flux by six orders of magnitude.

Tentative AMS-02 antihelium events could indicate a strongly coupled dark sector.

The model provides a new perspective on cosmic-ray antinuclei origins.

Abstract

Standard Model extensions with a strongly coupled dark sector can induce high-multiplicity states of soft quarks. Such final states trigger extremely efficient antinucleus formation. We show that dark matter annihilation or decay into a strongly coupled sector can dramatically enhance the cosmic-ray antinuclei flux -- by six orders of magnitude in the case of ${^4\overline{\text{He}}}$. In this work, we argue that the tentative ${^3\overline{\text{He}}}$ and ${^4\overline{\text{He}}}$ events reported by the AMS-02 collaboration could be the first sign of a strongly coupled dark sector observed in nature.