Positron line radiation as a signature of particle dark matter in the halo

We suggest a new signature for particle dark-matter annihilation in the halo: high-energy, positron line radiation. Because the cosmic-ray positron spectrum falls rapidly with energy and the contribution of conventional sources is only expected to be about 5% of the cosmic-ray electron flux, monoenergetic ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$’s from halo annihilations can be a significant and distinctive signal for very massive dark-matter particles (masses greater than about 30 GeV). If the ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$ ${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{-}}$ annihilation channel has an appreciable branch—a few percent or more—the ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$ signal could be observable in a future detector, such as have been proposed for ASTROMAG. A significant ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$ ${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{-}}$ branching ratio can occur for neutralinos or Dirac neutrinos. In spite of the fact that a heavy Dirac neutrino is no longer an attractive dark-matter candidate and the fact that the ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$ ${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{-}}$ branching ratios expected for the currently popular models of the neutralino are very small, the positron signature is so distinctive that we believe it is worthy of note: If seen, it is a ‘‘smoking gun’’ for particle dark matter in the halo. We also note that the positron signature will be of general importance for any future particle dark-matter candidate whose annihilation into ${\mathit{e}}^{+}$ ${\mathit{e}}^{\mathrm{-}}$ is not suppressed.