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Limits to gauge coupling in the dark sector of super-heavy dark matter particles from the Pierre Auger Observatory data

Olivier Deligny for the Pierre Auger Collaboration

SciPost Phys. Proc. 13, 013 (2023) · published 28 September 2023

Proceedings event

21st International Symposium on Very High Energy Cosmic Ray Interactions

Abstract

Assuming that the energy density of super-heavy particles matches that of dark matter observed today, tight constraints on the couplings governing the decay process are presented as a function of the particle mass. These constraints are obtained from the lack of signatures that would be suggestive of decaying super-heavy $X$ particles in the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory. In particular, instanton-induced decay processes allow us to derive a bound on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: $\alpha_X \lesssim 0.09$, for $10^{9} \lesssim M_X/\mathrm{GeV} < 10^{19}$. Cosmological aspects for super-heavy dark matter production during the reheating epoch are discussed.


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