Antideuteron and antihelium nuclei have been proposed as promising detection channels for dark matter because of the low astrophysical backgrounds expected. To estimate both potential exotic contributions and their backgrounds, one usually employs the coalescence model in momentum space. Here we use instead a newly developed coalescence model based on the Wigner function representations of the produced nuclei states. This approach includes both the process-dependent size of the formation region of antinuclei, and the momentum correlations of coalescing antinucleons in a semi-classical picture. The model contains a single universal parameter $σ$ that we tune to experimental data on antideuteron production in electron-positron, proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions. The obtained value $σ\simeq 1$ fm agrees well with its physical interpretation as the size of the formation region of antinuclei in collisions of point-like particles. This model allows us therefore to calculate in a consistent frame-work the antideuteron and antihelium fluxes both from secondary production and from dark matter annihilations. We find that the antihelium-3 flux falls short by more than an order of magnitude of the detection sensitivity of the AMS-02 experiment, assuming standard cosmic ray propagation parameters, while the antideuteron flux can be comparable to the sensitivities of the AMS-02 and GAPS experiments.
Light Antinuclei Coalescence: Femtoscopic Constraints via Neural-Flow Surrogates
Technical University of Munich(慕尼黑工业大学);Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences(马克斯·普朗克科学促进研究所数学系);Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”(索非亚大学)
Antideuteron and antihelium nuclei have been proposed as a detection channel for dark matter annihilations and decays in the Milky Way, due to the low astrophysical background expected. To estimate both the signal for various dark matter models and the astrophysical background, one employs usually the coalescence model in a Monte Carlo framework. This allows one to treat the production of antinuclei on an event-by-event basis, taking thereby into account momentum correlations between the antinucleons involved in the process. This approach lacks however an underlying microscopic picture, and th…
We show how to produce antideuteron, antihelium, and other antinuclei in large fractions from the decays of a new particle $ϕ$ that carries baryon number. Close to threshold, the production of nuclear bound states is preferred over the decay into individual nucleons, effectively decoupling antinuclei and antiproton fluxes and allowing the former to dominate, in clear contrast to antimatter production via coalescence. $ϕ$ can either form dark matter itself or be produced by it, and can give rise to a potentially testable amount of antinuclei.
Light antinucleus yields are calculated in a multiphase transport model (AMPT) coupled with a dynamical coalescence model. The model is tuned to reproduce the transverse momentum and rapidity distributions of antiproton in $pp$ collisions at $\rm \sqrt{s}$ = 7.7 GeV to 7 TeV. By applying a widely used cosmic ray propagation model, the antinucleus fluxes near the earth are estimated over a broad range of kinetic energies. Our result on the antideuteron flux is consistent with the calculations in the literature, while our upper limit on the antihelium-3 flux sits in-between calculations in the f…
We study the production of (hyper-)nuclei and di-baryons in most central heavy Ion collisions at energies of $E_{lab}=1-160 A$ GeV. In particular we are interested in clusters produced from the hot and dense fireball. The formation rate of strange and non-strange clusters is estimated by assuming thermal production from the intermediate phase of the UrQMD-hydro hybrid model and alternatively by the coalescence mechanism from a hadronic cascade model. Both model types are compared in detail. For most energies we find that both approaches agree in their predictions for the yields of the clusters…
Revisiting predictions for cosmic-ray antinucleon fluxes from Galactic Dark Matter
Università di Torino(都灵大学);Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino(意大利国家核物理研究所都灵分部);CERN(欧洲核子研究中心);Université Grenoble-Alpes(格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学);LPSC(格勒诺布尔粒子物理实验室)
The antideuteron and antihelium-3 production rates at high-energy heavy ion collisions are calculated in the framework of fusion mechanism. It is supposed, that anti-p,n,d,^3He participating in the fusion are moving in the mean field of other fireball constituents. It is demonstrated that at high energies, where many pions are present in the fireball, the number of produced anti-d and ^3He is determined by the balance between created and desintegrated (mainly in collisions with pions) anti-d and ^3He. The explicit formulae for coalescence parameters are presented and compared with the data.
Light antinuclei, like antideuteron and antihelium-3, are ideal probes for new, exotic physics because their astrophysical backgrounds are suppressed at low energies. In order to exploit fully the inherent discovery potential of light antinuclei, a reliable description of their production cross sections in cosmic ray interactions is crucial. We provide therefore the cross sections of antideuteron and antihelium-3 production in $pp$, $p$He, He$p$, HeHe, $\bar pp$ and $\bar p$He collisions at energies relevant for secondary production in the Milky Way, in a tabulated form which is convinient to …
We investigate the collision energy dependence of deuteron and antideuteron emission in the RHIC-BES low- to mid-energy range $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 4.6-200$ GeV where the formation rate of antinuclei compared to nuclei is strongly suppressed. In the coalescence picture, this can be understood as bulk emission for nuclei in contrast to surface emission for antinuclei. By comparison with experimental data on the coalescence parameter $B_2$, we are able to extract the respective source geometries. This interpretation is further supported by results from the UrQMD transport model, and establishes the f…
With the kinetic freeze-out nucleons and antinucleons obtained from the quark combination model, we study the production of light nuclei and antinuclei in the (anti-)nucleon coalescence mechanism in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We derive analytic formulas of the momentum distributions of different light nuclei and apply them to compute transverse momentum ($p_T$) spectra of (anti-)deuterons ($d$, $\bar d$) and (anti-)tritons ($t$, $\bar t$) in Au-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=$7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4 GeV. We find that the experimental data available for these $p_T$ spectra can be…
We demonstrate that the tentative detection of a few antihelium events with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) on board the International Space Station can, in principle, be ascribed to the annihilation or decay of Galactic dark matter, when accounting for uncertainties in the coalescence process leading to the formation of antinuclei. We show that the predicted antiproton rate, assuming the antihelium events came from dark matter, is marginally consistent with AMS data, as is the antideuteron rate with current available constraints. We argue that a dark matter origin can be tested with bet…
The possibility of antihelium production in interaction of cosmic rays with the interstellar gas is studied using large-scale Monte Carlo simulations. For this purpose, an energy-dependent coalescence mechanism developed previously is extended to estimate the production of light antinuclei (${}^3\overline{\text{He}}$ and ${}^4\overline{\text{He}}$). The uncertainty in the coalescence parameter and its effect on the expected antiparticle flux is also investigated. The simulated background antihelium fluxes are found to be lower than the fluxes predicted by simplified models using numerical scal…
Technical University of Munich(慕尼黑工业大学);Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility(托马斯·杰斐逊国家加速器设施);INFN Pisa(意大利国家核物理研究所比萨分部);Università di Bologna(博洛尼亚大学);Università di Pisa(比萨大学)
We present the production of light (anti)nuclei, (anti)hypertriton and di-Lambda based on coalescence model in central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200GeV$. The invariant yields of \He(\Hebar), \hypert(\hypertbar), \Hee(\Heebar) obtained is found to be consistent with the STAR measurements. The $p_{T}$ integrated yields for di-Lambda $dN_{ΛΛ}/dy \sim 2.23\times10^{-5}$, and is not strongly dependent on the parameter employed for coalescence process. Relative particle ratios of light anti(nuclei) and (anti)hypertriton are explored, and agree with experimental data and thermal model predic…