Impact of QCD uncertainties on antiproton spectra from dark-matter annihilation

Understand

Dark-matter particles that annihilate or decay can undergo complex sequences of processes, including strong and electromagnetic radiation, hadronisation, and hadron decays, before particles that are stable on astrophysical time scales are produced.

• Antiprotons produced in this way may leave footprints in experiments such as AMS--02.
• Several groups have reported an excess of events in the antiproton flux in the rigidity range of $10$--$20$ GV.
• However, the theoretical modeling of baryon production is not straightforward and relies in part on phenomenological models in Monte Carlo event generators.