Dark matter for excess of AMS-02 positrons and antiprotons

We propose a dark matter explanation to simultaneously account for the excess of antiproton-to-proton and positron power spectra observed in the AMS-02 experiment while having the right dark matter relic abundance and satisfying the current direct search bounds. We extend the Higgs triplet model with a hidden gauge symmetry of SU(2)(x) that is broken to Z(3) by a quadruplet scalar field, rendering the associated gauge bosons stable weakly-interacting massive particle dark matter candidates. By coupling the complex Higgs triplet and the SU(2)(x) quadruplet, the dark matter candidates can annihilate into triplet Higgs bosons each of which in turn decays into lepton or gauge boson final states. Such a mechanism gives rise to correct excess of positrons and antiprotons with an appropriate choice of the triplet vacuum expectation value. Besides, the model provides a link between neutrino mass and dark matter phenomenology. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license