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Uranus's anomalously low excess heat constrains strongly interacting dark matter

Saibal Mitra

astro-pharXiv:astro-ph/0408341

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 micro-barn 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 150 MeV and 104 GeV.

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