Constraints on Ultra-heavy DM from TeV-PeV gamma-ray diffuse measurements

Abstract

Recent experiments have measured the Galactic $\gamma$-ray diffuse emission up to PeV energies, opening a window to study acceleration of Galactic cosmic rays and their propagation up to the cosmic-ray knee. Furthermore, these observations provide a powerful tool to set strong constraints into very-heavy dark matter particles, with masses in the TeV-PeV range. In this paper, we explore the potential of the newest observations of diffuse emissions at the Galactic plane from HAWC and LHAASO to probe this kind of dark matter over a wide mass range. Here, we model secondary emissions (inverse-Compton) from the electrons and positrons produced in the annihilation/decay of dark matter, on top of their prompt $\gamma$-ray emission, including the effects of absorption of high-energy photons via pair production. Furthermore, we show that including the astrophysical backgrounds (namely diffuse emission from cosmic-ray collisions or emission from unresolved sources) can significantly improve these limits. We find that the new measurements provided, specially by LHAASO with the combination of the WCDA and KM2A detectors, allow us to set strong constraints in decaying dark matter, being competitive and even improving the strongest constraints at the moment. We also highlight that these regions lead to constraints that are less affected by uncertainties from the dark matter distribution and discuss how CTA north and SWGO will be able to improve limits in this mass range.