Title: Astrophysical signatures of leptonium,
Abstract: More than 10^43 positrons annihilate every second in the centre of our Galaxy
yet, despite four decades of observations, their origin is still unknown. Many
candidates have been proposed, such as supernovae and low mass X-ray binaries.
However, these models are difficult to reconcile with the distribution of
positrons, which are highly concentrated in the Galactic bulge, and therefore
require specific propagation of the positrons through the interstellar medium.
Alternative sources include dark matter decay, or the supermassive black hole,
both of which would have a naturally high bulge-to-disc ratio.
The chief difficulty in reconciling models with the observations is the
intrinsically poor angular resolution of gamma-ray observations, which cannot
resolve point sources. Essentially all of the positrons annihilate via the
formation of positronium. This gives rise to the possibility of observing
recombination lines of positronium emitted before the atom annihilates. These
emission lines would be in the UV and the NIR, giving an increase in angular
resolution of a factor of 10^4 compared to gamma ray observations, and allowing
the discrimination between point sources and truly diffuse emission.
Analogously to the formation of positronium, it is possible to form atoms of
true muonium and true tauonium. Since muons and tauons are intrinsically
unstable, the formation of such leptonium atoms will be localised to their
places of origin. Thus observations of true muonium or true tauonium can
provide another way to distinguish between truly diffuse sources such as dark
matter decay, and an unresolved distribution of point sources.