X-Ray Constraints on Dark Photon Tridents

Dark photons that are sufficiently light and/or weakly-interacting represent a compelling vision of dark matter. Dark photon decay into three photons, which we call the dark photon trident, can be the dominant channel when the dark photon mass falls below the electron pair threshold and can produce...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-06
Main Authors: Linden, Tim, Nguyen, Thong T Q, Tait, Tim M P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dark matter
Decay
Observatories
Photons
X-rays
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Dark photons that are sufficiently light and/or weakly-interacting represent a compelling vision of dark matter. Dark photon decay into three photons, which we call the dark photon trident, can be the dominant channel when the dark photon mass falls below the electron pair threshold and can produce a significant flux of x-rays. We use 16 years of data from INTEGRAL/SPI to constrain sub-MeV dark photon decay, producing new worlds-best constraints on the kinetic mixing parameter for dark photon masses between 61 keV and 1022 keV, and comment on the potential for future x-ray observatories to discover the trident decay process.
ISSN:2331-8422