Dark matter conversion as a source of boost factor for explaining the cosmic ray positron and electron excesses

Abstract

In interacting multi-component dark matter (DM) models, if the DM components are nearly degenerate in mass and the interactions between them are strong enough, the relatively heavy DM components can be converted into lighter ones at late time after the thermal decoupling. Consequently, the relic density of the lightest DM component can be considerably enhanced at late time. This may contribute to an alternative source of boost factor required to explain the positron and electron excesses reported by the recent DM indirect search experiments such as PAMELA, Fermi-LAT and HESS etc..