Dark Matter, Baryon Number, and Cosmic-Ray Antinuclei

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Gemmell, Caleb, Hooper, Dan, Koren, Seth, Vassallo, Fabrizio
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Gemmell, Caleb
Hooper, Dan
Koren, Seth
Vassallo, Fabrizio
author_facet Gemmell, Caleb
Hooper, Dan
Koren, Seth
Vassallo, Fabrizio
contents Antideuterons and antihelium nuclei in the cosmic-ray spectrum have long been considered a smoking gun signature of dark matter annihilation, making the tentative observation of several such events by AMS highly intriguing. Conventional dark matter models, however, can produce only up to O(1) antideuteron events at AMS and are not capable of generating observable fluxes of antihelium. In this letter, we propose a class of models in which dark matter annihilates into particles carrying baryon and lepton number, whose subsequent decays produce enhanced fluxes of antinucleons and antinuclei. Such scenarios are motivated by Grand Unified Theories and can lead to an order-of-magnitude or larger enhancement in the resulting antideuteron and antihelium-3 fluxes, providing a means by which to potentially explain the events reported by the AMS Collaboration.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_12314
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Dark Matter, Baryon Number, and Cosmic-Ray Antinuclei
Gemmell, Caleb
Hooper, Dan
Koren, Seth
Vassallo, Fabrizio
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Antideuterons and antihelium nuclei in the cosmic-ray spectrum have long been considered a smoking gun signature of dark matter annihilation, making the tentative observation of several such events by AMS highly intriguing. Conventional dark matter models, however, can produce only up to O(1) antideuteron events at AMS and are not capable of generating observable fluxes of antihelium. In this letter, we propose a class of models in which dark matter annihilates into particles carrying baryon and lepton number, whose subsequent decays produce enhanced fluxes of antinucleons and antinuclei. Such scenarios are motivated by Grand Unified Theories and can lead to an order-of-magnitude or larger enhancement in the resulting antideuteron and antihelium-3 fluxes, providing a means by which to potentially explain the events reported by the AMS Collaboration.
title Dark Matter, Baryon Number, and Cosmic-Ray Antinuclei
topic High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12314