@misc{10481/80987, year = {2023}, month = {2}, url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10481/80987}, abstract = {Instantons, which are nonperturbative solutions to Yang-Mills equations, provide a signal for the occurrence of quantum tunneling between distinct classes of vacua. They can give rise to decays of particles otherwise forbidden. Using data collected at the Pierre Auger Observatory, we search for signatures of such instanton-induced processes that would be suggestive of super-heavy particles decaying in the Galactic halo. These particles could have been produced during the post-inflationary epoch and match the relic abundance of dark matter inferred today. The nonobservation of the signatures searched for allows us to derive a bound on the reduced coupling constant of gauge interactions in the dark sector: αX ≲ 0.09, for 109 ≲ MX=GeV < 1019. Conversely, we obtain that, for instance, a reduced coupling constant αX ¼ 0.09 excludes masses MX ≳ 3 × 1013 GeV. In the context of dark matter production from gravitational interactions alone, we illustrate how these bounds are complementary to those obtained on the Hubble rate at the end of inflation from the nonobservation of tensor modes in the cosmological microwave background.}, organization = {Argentina—Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT); Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y T´ecnicas (CONICET); Gobierno de la Provincia de Mendoza; Municipalidad de Malargüe; NDM Holdings and Valle Las Leñas; in gratitude for their continuing cooperation over land access}, organization = {Australia—the Australian Research Council}, organization = {Belgium— Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS); Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)}, organization = {Brazil—Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP); Fundação de Amparo `a Pesquisa do Estado de Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ); São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Grants No. 2019/10151-2, No. 2010/07359-6, and No. 1999/05404-3; Minist´erio da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações e Comunicações (MCTIC)}, organization = {Czech Republic— Grants No. MSMT CR LTT18004, No. LM2015038, No. LM2018102, No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/ 0001402, No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/18_046/0016010, and No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/17_049/0008422}, organization = {France—Centre de Calcul IN2P3/CNRS; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); Conseil R´egional Ile-de-France; D´epartement Physique Nucl´eaire et Corpusculaire (PNCIN2P3/ CNRS); D´epartement Sciences de l’Univers (SDU-INSU/CNRS); Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) Grant No. LABEX ANR-10-LABX-63 within the Investissements d’Avenir Programme Grant No. ANR- 11-IDEX-0004-02}, organization = {Germany—Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG); Finanzministerium Baden-Württemberg; Helmholtz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics (HAP); Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (HGF); Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen; Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst des Landes Baden-Württemberg}, organization = {Italy—Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN); Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF); Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca (MIUR); CETEMPS Center of Excellence; Ministero degli Affari Esteri (MAE)}, organization = {M´exico—Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) No. 167733; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de M´exico (UNAM); PAPIIT DGAPA-UNAM}, organization = {The Netherlands—Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO); Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative}, organization = {Poland—Ministry of Education and Science, Grant No. DIR/WK/2018/11; National Science Centre, Grants No. 2016/22/M/ST9/00198, No. 2016/23/B/ ST9/01635, and No. 2020/39/B/ST9/01398}, organization = {Portugal— Portuguese national funds and FEDER funds within Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (COMPETE)}, organization = {Romania—Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitization, CNCS/CCCDI—UEFISCDI, Projects No. PN19150201/16N/2019, No. PN1906010, No. TE128, and No. PED289, within PNCDI III}, organization = {Slovenia—Slovenian Research Agency, Grants No. P1- 0031, No. P1-0385, I0-0033, No. N1-0111}, organization = {Spain— Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (FPA2017-85114-P and PID2019–104676 GB-C32), Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2017/07), Junta de Andalucía (SOMM17/6104/UGR, P18-FR-4314) Feder Funds, RENATA Red Nacional Temática de Astropartículas (FPA2015-68783-REDT) and María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence (MDM-2016-0692)}, organization = {USA— Department of Energy, Contracts No. DE-AC02- 07CH11359, No. DE-FR02-04ER41300, No. DE-FG02- 99ER41107, and No. DE-SC0011689; National Science Foundation, Grant No. 0450696; The Grainger Foundation; Marie Curie-IRSES/EPLANET; European Particle Physics Latin American Network; and UNESCO}, publisher = {American Physical Society}, title = {Limits to Gauge Coupling in the Dark Sector Set by the Nonobservation of Instanton-Induced Decay of Super-Heavy Dark Matter in the Pierre Auger Observatory Data}, doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.061001}, author = {Abreu, P. and Bueno Villar, Antonio and Pierre Auger Collaboration}, }