Observables involving heavy quarks can be computed in perturbative QCD in two different approximation schemes: either the quark mass dependence is fully retained, or it is retained only where needed to regulate the collinear singularity. The two schemes have different advantages and drawbacks. In particular, it is known that the structure of large logarithms arising from soft emissions is different in the two approaches. We investigate the origin of this difference in some detail, focussing on a few specific processes. We show that it is related to the non-commutativity of the small-mass and soft-emission limits. Finally, we perform the resummation of soft-emission logarithms to next-to-leading accuracy in the case of Higgs decay into a b   <math> <mover> <mi>b</mi> <mo>¯</mo> </mover> </math>  $$ \overline{b} $$  pair, in the scheme in which the quark mass dependence is fully accounted for.

Italy

Daniele Gaggero

Andrea Ghira

Simone Marzani

Giovanni Ridolfi

Soft logarithms in processes with heavy quarks

The non-observation of extragalactic Hawking radiation from primordial black holes of 10$^{16}$ g sets a conservative strong bound on their cosmological abundance. We revisit this bound and show how it can be improved (both in mass reach and strength) by an adequate modeling of the combined AGN and blazar emission in the MeV range. We also estimate the sensitivity to the primordial black hole abundance of a future X-ray experiment capable of identifying a significantly larger number of astrophysical sources contributing to the diffuse background in this energy range.

Spain

Guillermo Ballesteros

Javier Coronado-Blázquez

X-ray and gamma-ray limits on the primordial black hole abundance from Hawking radiation

Observational constraints on gamma rays produced by the annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles around primordial black holes (PBHs) imply that these two classes of dark matter candidates cannot coexist. We show here that the successful detection of one or more PBHs by radio searches (with the Square Kilometer Array) and gravitational wave searches (with LIGO/Virgo and the upcoming Einstein Telescope) would set extraordinarily stringent constraints on virtually all weak-scale extensions of the standard model with stable relics, including those predicting a WIMP abundance much smaller than that of dark matter. Upcoming PBH searches have in particular the potential to rule out almost the entire parameter space of popular theories such as the minimal supersymmetric standard model and scalar singlet dark matter.

Netherlands

Gianfranco Bertone

Adam M. Coogan

Bradley J. Kavanagh

Christoph Weniger

Primordial black holes as silver bullets for new physics at the weak scale

The quest for the elusive dark matter (DM) that permeates the Universe (and in general the search for signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model at astronomical scales) provides a unique opportunity and a tough challenge to the high energy astrophysics community. In particular, the so-called DM indirect searches—mostly focused on a class of theoretically well-motivated DM candidates such as the weakly interacting massive particles—are affected by a complex astrophysical background of cosmic radiation. The understanding and modeling of such background require a deep comprehension of an intricate classical plasma physics problem, i.e., the interaction between high energy charged particles, accelerated in peculiar astrophysical environments, and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the interstellar medium of our galaxy. In this review we highlight several aspects of this exciting interplay between the most recent claims of DM annihilation/decay signatures from the sky and the galactic cosmic-ray research field. Our purpose is to further stimulate the debate about viable astrophysical explanations, discussing possible directions that would help breaking degeneracy patterns in the interpretation of current data. We eventually aim to emphasize how a deep knowledge on the physics of CR transport is therefore required to tackle the DM indirect search program at present and in the forthcoming years.

Mauro Valli

Impact of Cosmic-Ray Physics on Dark Matter Indirect Searches

A GeV gamma-ray excess has possibly been individuated in Fermi-LAT data from the Galactic Center and interpreted in terms of Dark Matter (DM) annihilations, either in hadronic (essentially bb̄) or leptonic channels. In order to test this tantalizing interpretation, we address two issues: (i) we improve the computation of secondary emission from DM (Inverse Compton and Bremsstrahlung) with respect to previous works, confirming it to be very relevant for determining the DM spectrum in the leptonic channels, so that any conclusion on the DM nature of the signal critically depends on this contribution; (ii) we consider the constraints from antiprotons on the DM hadronic channel, finding that the uncertainties on the propagation model, and in particular on the halo height, play a major role. Moreover, we discuss the role of solar modulation, taking into account possible charge dependent effects whose importance is estimated exploiting detailed numerical tools. The limits that we obtain severely constrain the DM interpretation of the excess in the hadronic channel, for standard assumptions on the Galactic propagation parameters and solar modulation. However, they considerably relax if more conservative choices are adopted.