U-boson detectability, and Light Dark Matter

Abstract

The possible existence of a new gauge boson U, light and very weakly coupled, allows for Light Dark Matter particles, which could also be at the origin of the 511 keV line from the galactic bulge. Independently of dark matter, and taking into account possible Z-U mixing effects, we show that, even under favorable circumstances (no axial couplings leading to an axionlike behavior or extra parity-violation effects, very small coupling to neutrinos), and using reasonable assumptions (no cancellation effect in g(mu)-2, lepton universality), the U coupling to electrons can be at most as large as ~ 1.5 10^-3 (for m(U) < m(mu)), and is likely to be smaller (e.g. <~ 3 10^-6 m(U) (MeV), if the U couplings to neutrinos and electrons are similar). This restricts significantly the detectability of a light U in e+e- --> gamma U, in particular. U exchanges can still provide annihilation cross sections of LDM particles of the appropriate size, even if this may require that light dark matter be relatively strongly self-interacting.