Interpretation of the Galactic gamma-ray excess with the dark matter indicated by $^8$Be and $^4$He anomalous transitions

Abstract

The long-standing Galactic center gamma-ray excess could be explained by GeV dark matter (DM) annihilation, while the DM interpretation seems in tension with recent joint limits from different astronomical scale observations, such as dwarf spheroidal galaxies, the Milky Way halo and galaxy groups/clusters. Motivated by $^8$Be and $^4$He anomalous transitions with possible new interactions mediated by a vector boson $X$, we consider a small fraction of DM mainly annihilating into a pair of on-shell vector boson $X X$ followed by $X \to e^+ e^-$ in this paper. The Galactic center gamma-ray excess is explained by this DM cascade annihilation. The gamma rays are mainly from Inverse Compton Scattering emission, and the DM cascade annihilation could be compatible with joint astrophysical limits and meanwhile be allowed by the AMS-02 positron observation. The direct detection of this model is also discussed.