3.5 keV X-rays as the "21 cm line" of dark atoms, and a link to light sterile neutrinos

Abstract

The recently discovered 3.5 keV X-ray line from extragalactic sources may be evidence of dark matter scatterings or decays. We show that dark atoms can be the source of the emission, through their hyperfine transitions, which would be the analog of 21 cm radiation from a dark sector. We identify two families of dark atom models that match the X-ray observations and are consistent with other constraints. In the first, the hyperfine excited state is long-lived compared to the age of the universe, and the dark atom mass is relatively unconstrained; dark atoms could be strongly self-interacting in this case. In the second, the excited state is short-lived and viable models are parameterized by the value of the dark proton-to-electron mass ratio $R$: for $R = 10^2-10^4$, the dark atom mass is predicted be in the range $350-1300$ GeV, with fine structure constant $α'\cong 0.1-0.6$. In either class of models, the dark photon must be massive with $m_{γ'} \gtrsim$ 1 MeV and decay into $e^+ e^-$. Evidence for the model could come from direct detection of the dark atoms. In a natural extension of this framework, the dark photon could decay predominantly into invisible particles, for example $\sim 0.5$ eV sterile neutrinos, explaining the extra radiation degree of freedom recently suggested by data from BICEP2, while remaining compatible with BBN.