Cosmological density of WIMPs from solar and terrestrial annihilations

view Abstract Citations (145) References (18) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Cosmological Density of WIMPs from Solar and Terrestrial Annihilations Gould, Andrew Abstract If weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) comprise the dark matter, then the ratio of their annihilation signals from the centers of the sun and earth can be used to measure the degree to which WIMP capture and annihilation have come into equilibrium in the earth. This would provide a measure of, or a limit on, the WIMP annihilation cross section. The annihilation cross section is, in turn, inversely related by a standard Lee-Weinberg calculation to the cosmological density of WIMPs, Omegax. If the next generation of detectors finds a signal from the sun, an upper bound, lower bound, or measurement of Omegax of O(0.1), depending on whether there is a comparable signal, no signal, or a small signal from the earth. The chain of reasoning which leads to this conclusion is broken if the WIMPs have primarily spin-dependent interaction cross sections, but this possibility may be checked using direct-detection experiments. A very accurate analytic formula is given for the integrated WIMP capture by the entire sun. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: April 1992 DOI: 10.1086/171156 Bibcode: 1992ApJ...388..338G Keywords: Annihilation Reactions; Elementary Particle Interactions; Particle Mass; Solar Interior; Space Density; Weak Energy Interactions; Dark Matter; Nuclear Fusion; Solar Neutrinos; Astrophysics; COSMOLOGY: DARK MATTER; COSMOLOGY: THEORY; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; NUCLEAR REACTIONS; NUCLEOSYNTHESIS; ABUNDANCES; SUN: INTERIOR full text sources ADS |