Diamanti, R., Lopez-Honorez, L., Mena, O., Palomares-Ruiz, S., & Vincent, A. C. (2014). Constraining dark matter late-time energy injection: decays and p-wave annihilations. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 017–24pp.
Abstract: We use the latest cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations to provide updated constraints on the dark matter lifetime as well as on p-wave suppressed annihilation cross sections in the 1 MeV to 1 TeV mass range. In contrast to scenarios with an s-wave dominated annihilation cross section, which mainly affect the CMB close to the last scattering surface, signatures associated with these scenarios essentially appear at low redshifts (z less than or similar to 50) when structure began to form, and thus manifest at lower multipoles in the CMB power spectrum. We use data from Planck, WMAP9, SPT and ACT, as well as Lyman-alpha measurements of the matter temperature at z similar to 4 to set a 95% confidence level lower bound on the dark matter lifetime of similar to 4 x 10(25) s for m(chi) = 100 MeV. This bound becomes lower by an order of magnitude at m(chi) = 1 TeV due to inefficient energy deposition into the inter-galactic medium. We also show that structure formation can enhance the effect of p-wave suppressed annihilation cross sections by many orders of magnitude with respect to the background cosmological rate, although even with this enhancement, CMB constraints are not yet strong enough to reach the thermal relic value of the cross section.
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Olmo, G. J., & Rubiera-Garcia, D. (2014). Semiclassical geons at particle accelerators. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 02(2), 010–25pp.
Abstract: We point out that in certain four-dimensional extensions of general relativity constructed within the Palatini formalism stable self-gravitating objects with a discrete mass and charge spectrum may exist. The incorporation of nonlinearities in the electromagnetic field may effectively reduce their mass spectrum by many orders of magnitude. As a consequence, these objects could be within (or near) the reach of current particle accelerators. We provide an exactly solvable model to support this idea.
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Racker, J. (2014). Mass bounds for baryogenesis from particle decays and the inert doublet model. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 03(3), 025–23pp.
Abstract: In models for thermal baryogenesis from particle decays, the mass of the decaying particle is typically many orders of magnitude above the TeV scale. We will discuss different ways to lower the energy scale of baryogenesis and present the corresponding lower bounds on the particle's mass. This is done specifically for the inert doublet model with heavy Majorana neutrinos and then we indicate how to extrapolate the results to other scenarios. We also revisit the question of whether or not dark matter, neutrino masses, and the cosmic baryon asymmetry can be explained simultaneously at low energies in the inert doublet model.
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Di Mauro, M., Donato, F., Fornengo, N., Lineros, R. A., & Vittino, A. (2014). Interpretation of AMS-02 electrons and positrons data. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 006–33pp.
Abstract: We perform a combined analysis of the recent AMS-02 data on electrons, positrons, electrons plus positrons and positron fraction, in a self-consistent framework where we realize a theoretical modeling of all the astrophysical components that can contribute to the observed fluxes in the whole energy range. The primary electron contribution is modeled through the sum of an average flux from distant sources and the fluxes from the local supernova remnants in the Green catalog. The secondary electron and positron fluxes originate from interactions on the interstellar medium of primary cosmic rays, for which we derive a novel determination by using AMS-02 proton and helium data. Primary positrons and electrons from pulsar wind nebulae in the ATNF catalog are included and studied in terms of their most significant (while loosely known) properties and under different assumptions (average contribution from the whole catalog, single dominant pulsar, a few dominant pulsars). We obtain a remarkable agreement between our various modeling and the AMS-02 data for all types of analysis, demonstrating that the whole AMS-02 leptonic data admit a self-consistent interpretation in terms of astrophysical contributions.
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Fornengo, N., Lineros, R. A., Regis, M., & Taoso, M. (2014). The isotropic radio background revisited. J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys., 04(4), 008–36pp.
Abstract: We present an extensive analysis on the determination of the isotropic radio background. We consider six different radio maps, ranging from 22 MHz to 2.3 GHz and covering a large fraction of the sky. The large scale emission is modeled as a linear combination of an isotropic component plus the Galactic synchrotron radiation and thermal bremsstrahlung. Point-like and extended sources are either masked or accounted for by means of a template. We find a robust estimate of the isotropic radio background, with limited scatter among different Galactic models. The level of the isotropic background lies significantly above the contribution obtained by integrating the number counts of observed extragalactic sources. Since the isotropic component dominates at high latitudes, thus making the profile of the total emission flat, a Galactic origin for such excess appears unlikely. We conclude that, unless a systematic offset is present in the maps, and provided that our current understanding of the Galactic synchrotron emission is reasonable, extragalactic sources well below the current experimental threshold seem to account for the majority of the brightness of the extragalactic radio sky.
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