Uranus's anomalously low excess heat constrains strongly interacting dark matter
Abstract
Dark matter annihilations can generate significant amounts of internal heat inside planets if dark matter consists mainly of particles with nuclear cross sections in the microbarn range or larger (SIMPs). By considering a detailed model of Uranus's interior, we calculate upper limits on the S-wave annihilation cross section for these particles as a function of their mass. These upper limits, together with other experimental and theoretical constraints, rule out SIMPs with masses between 150MeV and 104 GeV.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review D
- Pub Date:
- November 2004
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0408341
- Bibcode:
- 2004PhRvD..70j3517M
- Keywords:
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- 95.35.+d;
- Dark matter;
- Astrophysics;
- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
- E-Print:
- 6 REVTeX pages, version accepted by PRD