  Recent preliminary results from the PAMELA experiment indicate the presence
of an excess of cosmic ray positrons above 10 GeV. In this letter, we consider
possibility that this signal is the result of dark matter annihilations taking
place in the halo of the Milky Way. Rather than focusing on a specific particle
physics model, we take a phenomenological approach and consider a variety of
masses and two-body annihilation modes, including W+W-, ZZ, b bbar, tau+ tau-,
mu+ mu-, and e+e. We also consider a range of diffusion parameters consistent
with current cosmic ray data. We find that a significant upturn in the positron
fraction above 10 GeV is compatible with a wide range of dark matter
annihilation modes, although very large annihilation cross sections and/or
boost factors arising from inhomogeneities in the local dark matter
distribution are required to produce the observed intensity of the signal. We
comment on constraints from gamma rays, synchrotron emission, and cosmic ray
antiproton measurements.
