In our Galaxy, light antinuclei composed of antiprotons and antineutrons can be produced through high-energy cosmic-ray collisions with the interstellar medium or could also originate from the annihilation of dark-matter particles that have not yet been discovered. On Earth, the only way to produce and study antinuclei with high precision is to create them at high-energy particle accelerators. Although the properties of elementary antiparticles have been studied in detail, the knowledge of the interaction of light antinuclei with matter is limited. We determine the disappearance probability of $^{3}\overline{\rm He}$ when it encounters matter particles and annihilates or disintegrates within the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. We extract the inelastic interaction cross section, which is then used as input to calculations of the transparency of our Galaxy to the propagation of $^{3}\overline{\rm He}$ stemming from dark-matter annihilation and cosmic-ray interactions within the interstellar medium. For a specific dark-matter profile, we estimate a transparency of about 50%, whereas it varies with increasing $^{3}\overline{\rm He}$ momentum from 25% to 90% for cosmic-ray sources. The results indicate that $^{3}\overline{\rm He}$ nuclei can travel long distances in the Galaxy, and can be used to study cosmic-ray interactions and dark-matter annihilation.
Raw primary antihelium3-to-helium3 ratio as a function of the momentum p_primary.
Raw primary antihelium3-to-helium3 ratio from Geant4-based MC simulations as a function of the momentum p_primary with default sigma_inel(3Hebar).
Raw primary antihelium3-to-helium3 ratio from Geant4-based MC simulations as a function of the momentum p_primary with sigma_inel(3Hebar)x0.5.
We have analyzed a data set taken over 2.76 years live time with the Baikal neutrino telescope NT200. The goal of the analysis is to search for neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in the center of the Sun. Apart from the conventional annihilation channels $b\bar{b}$, $W^+W^-$ and $\tau^+\tau^-$ we consider also the annihilation of dark matter particles into monochromatic neutrinos. From the absence of any excess of events from the direction of the Sun over the expected background, we derive 90% upper limits on the fluxes of muons and muon neutrinos from the Sun, as well as on the elastic cross sections of dark matter scattering on protons.
Process: DM DM --> BOTTOM BOTTOMBAR. Half-cone angle GAMMA, 90% upper limit N(SIGNAL) on the number of signal events, the muon flux PHI(MU), the dark matter annihilation rate in the Sun GAMMA(ANN), the dark matter-proton spin-dependent SIG(SD) and spin-independent SIG(SI) scattering cross sections and neutrino flux PHI(NU).
Process: DM DM --> TAU+ TAU-. Half-cone angle GAMMA, 90% upper limit N(SIGNAL) on the number of signal events, the muon flux PHI(MU), the dark matter annihilation rate in the Sun GAMMA(ANN), the dark matter-proton spin-dependent SIG(SD) and spin-independent SIG(SI) scattering cross sections and neutrino flux PHI(NU).
Process: DM DM --> W+ W-. Half-cone angle GAMMA, 90% upper limit N(SIGNAL) on the number of signal events, the muon flux PHI(MU), the dark matter annihilation rate in the Sun GAMMA(ANN), the dark matter-proton spin-dependent SIG(SD) and spin-independent SIG(SI) scattering cross sections and neutrino flux PHI(NU).
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