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Register a new userFermi-LAT constraints on dark matter annihilation cross section from observations of the Fornax cluster
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Authors
Shinichiro Ando
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We analyze 2.8-yr data of 1-100 GeV photons for clusters of galaxies, collected with the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi satellite. By analyzing 49 nearby massive clusters located at high Galactic latitudes, we find no excess gamma-ray emission towards directions of the galaxy clusters. Using flux upper limits, we show that the Fornax cluster provides the most stringent constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section. Stacking a large sample of nearby clusters does not help improve the limit for most dark matter models. This suggests that a detailed modeling of the Fornax cluster is important for setting robust limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section based on clusters. We therefore perform the detailed mass modeling and predict the expected dark matter annihilation signals from the Fornax cluster, by taking into account effects of dark matter contraction and substructures. By modeling the mass distribution of baryons (stars and gas) around a central bright elliptical galaxy, NGC 1399, and using a modified contraction model motivated by numerical simulations, we show that the dark matter contraction boosts the annihilation signatures by a factor of 4. For dark matter masses around 10 GeV, the upper limit obtained on the annihilation cross section times relative velocity is <sigma v> <~ (2-3)x10^{-25} cm^3 s^{-1}, which is within a factor of 10 from the value required to explain the dark matter relic density. This effect is more robust than the annihilation boost due to substructure, and it is more important unless the mass of the smallest subhalos is much smaller than that of the Sun.
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We present the first joint analysis of gamma-ray data from the MAGIC Cherenkov telescopes and the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) to search for gamma-ray signals from dark matter annihilation in dwarf satellite galaxies. We combine 158 hours of Segue 1 observations with MAGIC with 6-year observations of 15 dwarf satellite galaxies by the Fermi-LAT. We obtain limits on the annihilation cross-section for dark matter particle masses between 10 GeV and 100 TeV - the widest mass range ever explored by a single gamma-ray analysis. These limits improve on previously published Fermi-LAT and MAGIC results by up to a factor of two at certain masses. Our new inclusive analysis approach is completely generic and can be used to perform a global, sensitivity-optimized dark matter search by combining data from present and future gamma-ray and neutrino detectors.
Annihilation of dark matter particles in cosmological halos (including a halo of the Milky Way) contributes to the diffuse gamma-ray background (DGRB). As this contribution will appear anisotropic in the sky, one can use the angular power spectrum of anisotropies in DGRB to constrain properties of dark matter particles. By comparing the updated analytic model of the angular power spectrum of DGRB from dark matter annihilation with the power spectrum recently measured from the 22-month data of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), we place upper limits on the annihilation cross section of dark matter particles as a function of dark matter masses. We find that the current data exclude <sigma v> >~ 10^{-25} cm^3 s^{-1} for annihilation into bbar{b} at the dark matter mass of 10 GeV, which is a factor of three times larger than the canonical cross section. The limits are weaker for larger dark matter masses. The limits can be improved further with more Fermi-LAT data as well as by using the power spectrum at lower multipoles (l <~ 150), which are currently not used due to a potential Galactic foreground contamination.
The first published Fermi large area telescope (Fermi-LAT) measurement of the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission is in good agreement with a single power law, and is not showing any signature of a dominant contribution from dark matter sources in the energy range from 20 to 100 GeV. We use the absolute size and spectral shape of this measured flux to derive cross section limits on three types of generic dark matter candidates: annihilating into quarks, charged leptons and monochromatic photons. Predicted gamma-ray fluxes from annihilating dark matter are strongly affected by the underlying distribution of dark matter, and by using different available results of matter structure formation we assess these uncertainties. We also quantify how the dark matter constraints depend on the assumed conventional backgrounds and on the Universes transparency to high-energy gamma-rays. In reasonable background and dark matter structure scenarios (but not in all scenarios we consider) it is possible to exclude models proposed to explain the excess of electrons and positrons measured by the Fermi-LAT and PAMELA experiments. Derived limits also start to probe cross sections expected from thermally produced relics (e.g. in minimal supersymmetry models) annihilating predominantly into quarks. For the monochromatic gamma-ray signature, the current measurement constrains only dark matter scenarios with very strong signals.
Galaxy clusters are dominated by dark matter, and may have a larger proportion of surviving substructure than, e.g, field galaxies. Due to the presence of galaxy clusters in relative proximity and their high dark matter content, they are promising targets for the indirect detection of dark matter via Gamma-rays. Indeed, dedicated studies of sets of up to 100 clusters have been made previously, so far with no clear indication of a dark matter signal. Here we report on Gamma-ray observations of some 26,000 galaxy clusters based on Pass-7 Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) data, with clusters selected from the Tully 2MASS Groups catalog. None of these clusters is significantly detected in Gamma-rays, and we present Gamma-ray flux upper limits between 20 GeV and 500 GeV. We estimate the dark matter content of each of the clusters in these catalogs, and constrain the dark matter annihilation cross section, by analyzing Fermi-LAT data from the directions of the clusters. We set some of the tightest cluster-based constraints to date on the annihilation of dark matter particles with masses between 20 GeV and 500 GeV for annihilation to a gamma-ray line. Our cluster based constraints are not yet as strong as bounds placed using the Galactic Center, although an uncertainty still exists regarding the boost factor from cluster substructure, where we have chosen a rather conservative value. Our analysis, given this choice of possible boost, is not yet sensitive enough to fully rule out typical realistic DM candidates, especially if the gamma-ray line is not a dominant annihilation mode.
The Fornax galaxy cluster was observed with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) for a total live time of 14.5 hours, searching for very-high-energy (VHE, E>100 GeV) gamma-rays from dark matter (DM) annihilation. No significant signal was found in searches for point-like and extended emissions. Using several models of the DM density distribution, upper limits on the DM velocity-weighted annihilation cross-section <sigma v> as a function of the DM particle mass are derived. Constraints are derived for different DM particle models, such as those arising from Kaluza-Klein and supersymmetric models. Various annihilation final states are considered. Possible enhancements of the DM annihilation gamma-ray flux, due to DM substructures of the DM host halo, or from the Sommerfeld effect, are studied. Additional gamma-ray contributions from internal bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton radiation are also discussed. For a DM particle mass of 1 TeV, the exclusion limits at 95% of confidence level reach values of <sigma v> ~ 10^-23cm^3s^-1, depending on the DM particle model and halo properties. Additional contribution from DM substructures can improve the upper limits on <sigma v> by more than two orders of magnitude. At masses around 4.5 TeV, the enhancement by substructures and the Sommerfeld resonance effect results in a velocity-weighted annihilation cross-section upper limit at the level of <sigma v> ~ 10^-26cm^3s^-1.
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