Enhancement of p-wave dark matter annihilation by quasi-bound states

Martin Beneke, Tobias Binder, Lorenzo De Ros, Mathias Garny

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We scrutinize the Sommerfeld enhancement in dark matter pair annihilation for p-wave and higher-ℓ partial waves. For the Yukawa potential these feature a super-resonant Breit-Wigner peak in their velocity-dependence close to Sommerfeld resonances as well as a universal scaling with velocity for all ℓ ≥ 1 that differs from the s-wave case. We provide a quantum mechanical explanation for these phenomena in terms of quasi-bound states sustained by the centrifugal barrier of the partial-wave potential, and give approximate WKB expressions capturing the main effects. The impact of quasi-bound states is exemplified for wino dark matter and models with light mediators, with a focus on indirect detection signals. We note that quasi-bound states can also explain similar peaks in the bound-state formation and self-scattering cross sections.

Original languageEnglish
Article number207
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Volume2024
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2024

Keywords

  • Models for Dark Matter
  • Particle Nature of Dark Matter

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