Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays & Super-heavy Dark Matter [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1611.07180


We reanalyse the prospects for upcoming Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Ray experiments in connection with the phenomenology of Super-heavy Dark Matter. We identify a set of observables well suited to reveal a possible anisotropy in the High Energy Cosmic Ray flux induced by the decays of these particles, and quantify their performance via Monte Carlo simulations that mimic the outcome of near-future and next-generation experiments. The spherical and circular dipoles are able to tell isotropic and anisotropic fluxes apart at a confidence level as large as $4\sigma$ or $5\sigma$, depending on the Dark Matter profile. The forward-to-backward flux ratio yields a comparable result for relatively large opening angles of about 40~deg, but it is less performing once a very large number of events is considered. We also find that an actual experiment employing these observables and collecting 300~events at 60~EeV would have a $50\%$ chance of excluding isotropy against Super-heavy Dark Matter at a significance of at least $3\sigma$

Read this paper on arXiv…

L. Marzola and F. Urban
Wed, 23 Nov 16
33/68

Comments: 15 pages + appendix + 10 figures