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Dark Matter Annihilation Can Produce a Detectable Antihelium Flux through Λ[over ¯]_{b} Decays
Martin Wolfgang Winkler1, Tim Linden1
1Stockholm University and The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, Alba Nova, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
Recent observations by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) have tentatively detected a handful of cosmic-ray antihelium events. Such events have long been considered as smoking-gun evidence for new physics, because astrophysical antihelium production is expected to be negligible. However, the dark-matter-induced antihelium flux is also expected to fall below current sensitivities, particularly in light of existing antiproton constraints. Here, we demonstrate that a previously neglected standard model process-the production of antihelium through the displaced-vertex decay of Λ[over ¯]_{b}-baryons-can significantly boost the dark matter induced antihelium flux. This process can entirely dominate the production of high-energy antihelium nuclei, increasing the rate of detectable AMS-02 events by 2 orders of magnitude.
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