Accurate Inverse-Compton Models Strongly Enhance Leptophilic Dark Matter Signals [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.07317


The annihilation of TeV-scale leptophilic dark matter into electron-positron pairs (hereafter $e^+e^-$) will produce a sharp cutoff in the local cosmic-ray $e^+e^-$ spectrum at an energy matching the dark matter mass. At these high energies, $e^+e^-$ cool quickly due to synchrotron interactions with magnetic fields and inverse-Compton scattering with the interstellar radiation field. These energy losses are typically modelled as a continuous process. However, inverse-Compton scattering is a stochastic energy-loss process where interactions are rare but catastrophic. We show that when inverse-Compton scattering is modelled as a stochastic process, the expected $e^+e^-$ flux from dark matter annihilation is about a factor of $\sim$2 larger near the dark matter mass than in the continuous model. This greatly enhances the detectability of heavy dark matter.

Read this paper on arXiv…

I. John and T. Linden
Tue, 18 Apr 23
61/80

Comments: 7 pages, 9 figures. Appendix adds 4 pages, 3 figures. To be submitted