INTEGRAL, eROSITA and Voyager constraints on light bosonic dark matter: ALPs, dark photons, scalars, B − L and Li − Lj vectors

Nguyen TT, Luque PDlT, John I, Balaji S, Carenza P, Linden T (2026)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2026

Journal

Physical Review D American Physical Society

Book Volume: 113

Article Number: 103010

Journal Issue: 10

DOI: 10.1103/FN6K-1NLC

Abstract

The decay of light bosonic dark matter particles can produce a bright electron/positron (e^þe⁻) flux that can be strongly constrained by local Voyager observations of the direct e^þe⁻ flux, as well as 511 keV line and x-ray continuum observations of e^þe⁻ emission. We carefully analyze the e^þe⁻ yield and resulting cosmic ray and x-ray spectra from theoretically well-motivated light dark matter models, including (a) electrophilic axion-like particles, (b) dark photons, (c) scalars, and (d) B − L and Li − Lj vector bosons. We use the morphology and spectrum of the INTEGRAL 511 keV line data, the eROSITA x-ray continuum spectrum and the Voyager e^þe⁻ spectrum to constrain the decay lifetime and coupling of each dark matter model. We find that 511 keV observations typically set world-leading limits on bosonic dark matter decay below masses of ∼1 GeV, while eROSITA observations provide the strongest constraints in the range from 1–10 GeV. Finally, we forecast future limits from 21 cm line searches with next-generation HERA data.

Additional Organisation(s)

Lehrstuhl für Physik Erlangen Centre for Astroparticle Physics (ECAP)

Involved external institutions

Stockholm University / Stockholms universitet

Sweden (SE) University of Turin / Università degli Studi di Torino (UNITO)

Italy (IT) King’s College London

United Kingdom (GB)

How to cite

APA:

Nguyen, T.T., Luque, P.D.l.T., John, I., Balaji, S., Carenza, P., & Linden, T. (2026). INTEGRAL, eROSITA and Voyager constraints on light bosonic dark matter: ALPs, dark photons, scalars, B − L and Li − Lj vectors. Physical Review D, 113(10). https://doi.org/10.1103/FN6K-1NLC

MLA:

Nguyen, Thong T.Q., et al. "INTEGRAL, eROSITA and Voyager constraints on light bosonic dark matter: ALPs, dark photons, scalars, B − L and Li − Lj vectors." Physical Review D 113.10 (2026).

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