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Aaron C Vincent

Publications and source records attributed to Aaron C Vincent.

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Effect of electromagnetic dipole dark matter on energy transport in the solar interior

In recent years, a revised set of solar abundances has led to a discrepancy in the sound-speed profile between helioseismology and theoretical solar models. Conventional solutions require additional mechanisms for energy transport within the Sun. Vincent et al. have recently suggested that dark matter with a momentum or velocity dependent cross section could provide a solution. In this work, we consider three models of dark matter with such cross sections and their effect on the stellar structure. In particular, the three models incorporate dark matter particles interacting through an electromagnetic dipole moment: an electric dipole, a magnetic dipole or an anapole. Each model is implemented in the \texttt{DarkStec} stellar evolution program, which incorporates the effects of dark matter capture and heat transport within the solar interior. We show that dark matter with an anapole moment of $\sim1\mathrm{GeV}^{-2}$ or magnetic dipole moment of $\sim10^{-3}μ_p$ can improve the sound-speed profile, small frequency separations and convective zone radius with respect to the Standard Solar Model. However, the required dipole moments are strongly excluded by direct detection experiments.

hep-ph

Overcoming Gamma Ray Constraints with Annihilating Dark Matter in Milky Way Subhalos

We reconsider Sommerfeld-enhanced annihilation of dark matter (DM) into leptons to explain PAMELA and Fermi electron and positron observations, in light of possible new effects from substructure. There is strong tension between getting a large enough lepton signal while respecting constraints on the fluxes of associated gamma rays. We first show that these constraints become significantly more stringent than in previous studies when the contributions from background e^+ e^- are taken into account, so much so that even cored DM density profiles are ruled out. We then show how DM annihilations within subhalos can get around these constraints. Specifically, if most of the observed lepton excess comes from annihilations in a nearby (within 1 kpc) subhalo along a line of sight toward the galactic center, it is possible to match both the lepton and gamma ray observations. We demonstrate that this can be achieved in a simple class of particle physics models in which the DM annihilates via a hidden leptophilic U(1) vector boson, with explicitly computed Sommerfeld enhancement factors. Gamma ray constraints on the main halo annihilations (and CMB constraints from the era of decoupling) require the annihilating component of the DM to be subdominant, of order 10^-2 of the total DM density.

hep-ph