Indirect Detection of Dark Matter Annihilating into Dark Glueballs

TL;DR

This paper investigates the indirect detection of dark matter that annihilates into dark glueballs, which decay into Standard Model particles, using advanced modeling to set constraints and explore implications for dark sector theories.

Contribution

It provides the first constraints on dark matter annihilation into dark glueballs using the GlueShower code across multiple channels and explores how observations can inform dark sector properties.

Findings

Constraints on dark matter annihilation into dark glueballs established

Dark glueball decay portals can explain the Galactic Centre Excess

Multi-channel astrophysical observations can probe dark sector details

Abstract

We examine indirect detection of dark matter that annihilates into dark glueballs, which in turn decay into the Standard Model via a range of portals. This arises if the dark matter candidate couples to a confining gauge force without light flavours, representative of many possible complex dark sectors. Such Hidden Valley scenarios are being increasingly considered due to non-detection of minimal models as well as theoretical motivations such as the Twin Higgs solution to the little hierarchy problem. Study of dark glueballs in indirect detection has previously been hampered by the difficulty of modeling their production in dark showers. We use the recent GlueShower code to produce the first constraints on dark matter annihilating via dark glueballs into the Standard Model across photon, antiproton, and positron channels. We also fit the Galactic Centre Excess and use this observation, combined with other astrophysical constraints, to show how multi-channel observations can constrain UV and IR details of the theory, namely the exact decay portal and hadronization behaviour respectively. This provides unique complementary discovery and diagnostic potential to Hidden Valley searches at colliders. It is interesting to note that thermal WIMPs annihilating to $\mathcal{O}(10~\mathrm{GeV})$ dark glueballs and then the Standard Model via the Twin-Higgs-like decay portal can account for the Galactic Centre Excess while respecting other constraints.