Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published December 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

Increasing the neutralino relic abundance with slepton coannihilations: consequences for indirect dark matter detection

Abstract

We point out that if the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is a higgsino- or wino-like neutralino, the net effect of coannihilations with sleptons is to increase the relic abundance, rather than producing the usual suppression, which takes place if the LSP is bino-like. The reason for the enhancement lies in the effective thermally averaged cross section at freeze-out: sleptons annihilate (and coannihilate) less efficiently than the neutralino(s)–chargino system, and therefore slepton coannihilations effectively act as parasite degrees of freedom at freeze-out. Henceforth, the thermal relic abundance of LSPs corresponds to the cold dark matter abundance for smaller values of the LSP mass, and larger values of the neutralino pair annihilation cross section. In turn, at a given thermal neutralino relic abundance, this implies larger indirect detection rates, as a result of an increase in the fluxes of antimatter, gamma rays and neutrinos from the Sun originating from neutralino pair annihilations.

Additional Information

© Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing Limited 2006. Received 4 October 2006, accepted for publication 29 November 2006. Published 20 December 2006. We thank Piero Ullio for valuable discussions and suggestions. The work of SP was supported by the US Department of Energy grant numbers DE-FG03-92-ER40701 and FG02-05ER41361, and by NASA grant number NNG05GF69G. The work of AP was supported by the Italian INFN under the project 'Fisica Astroparticellare' and the MIUR PRIN 'Fisica Astroparticellare'.

Attached Files

Published - PROjcap06b.pdf

Files

PROjcap06b.pdf
Files (718.6 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:4516113aa9ecdd23b39fcd895692ef5a
718.6 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 16, 2023