Indirect detection of unstable heavy dark matter

Jun, 1992
5 pages
Published in:
  • Phys.Lett.B 295 (1992) 104-108
  • Published: 1992
e-Print:
Report number:
  • UPPSALA-U-PT17-1992

Citations per year

19911997200320092015102
Abstract:
Unstable relics with lifetime longer than the age of the Universe could be the dark matter today. Electrons, photons and neutrinos are a natural outcome of their decay and could be searched for in cosmic rays and in γ\gamma-ray and neutrino detectors. I compare the sensitivities of these three types of searches to the mass and lifetime of a generic unstable particle. I show that if the relics constitute our galactic halo and their branching ratios into electron-positrons, photons and neutrinos are comparable, neutrino searches would probe the longest lifetimes for masses \simge 40 \TeV, while electron-positron searches would be better but more uncertain for lighter particles. If instead the relics are not clustered in our halo, neutrinos are more sensitive a probe than γ\gamma-rays for masses \simge 700 \GeV. A 1 \sqkm neutrino telescope should be able to explore lifetimes up to 10 30sec \sim 10~{30} \sec while searching for neutrinos from unstable particles above the atmospheric background.
  • dark matter
  • postulated particle
  • mass: lifetime
  • lifetime: mass
  • neutrino: cosmic radiation
  • photon: cosmic radiation
  • electron: cosmic radiation
  • cosmic radiation: flux
  • flux: cosmic radiation
  • numerical calculations