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Register a new userOn the origin of the gamma-ray emission from Omega Centauri: Milisecond pulsars and dark matter annihilation
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Added by
Alma Xochitl Gonz\\'alez-Morales
Publication date
2019
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We explore two possible scenarios to explain the observed gamma-ray emission associated with the atypical globular cluster Omega-Centauri: emission from millisecond pulsars (MSP) and dark matter (DM) annihilation. In the first case the total number of MSPs needed to produce the gamma-ray flux is compatible with the known (but not confirmed) MSP candidates observed in X-rays. A DM interpretation is motivated by the possibility of Omega-Centauri being the remnant core of an ancient dwarf galaxy hosting a surviving DM component. At least two annihilation channels, light quarks and muons, can plausibly produce the observed gama-ray spectrum. We outline constraints on the parameter space of DM mass versus the product of the pair-annihilation cross section and integrated squared DM density (the so-called J-factor). We translate upper limits on the dark matter content of Omega-Centauri into lower limits on the annihilation cross section. This shows s-wave annihilation into muons to be inconsistent with CMB observations, while a small window for annihilation into light quarks is allowed. Further analysis of Omega-Centauris internal kinematics, and/or additional information on the resident MSP population will yield much stronger constraints and shed light about the origin of this otherwise mysterious gamma-ray source.
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The $gamma$-ray and neutrino emissions from dark matter (DM) annihilation in galaxy clusters are studied. After about one year operation of Fermi-LAT, several nearby clusters are reported with stringent upper limits of GeV $gamma$-ray emission. We use the Fermi-LAT upper limits of these clusters to constrain the DM model parameters. We find that the DM model distributed with substructures predicted in cold DM (CDM) scenario is strongly constrained by Fermi-LAT $gamma$-ray data. Especially for the leptonic annihilation scenario which may account for the $e^{pm}$ excesses discovered by PAMELA/Fermi-LAT/HESS, the constraint on the minimum mass of substructures is of the level $10^2-10^3$ M$_{odot}$, which is much larger than that expected in CDM picture, but is consistent with a warm DM scenario. We further investigate the sensitivity of neutrino detections of the clusters by IceCube. It is found that neutrino detection is much more difficult than $gamma$-rays. Only for very heavy DM ($sim 10$ TeV) together with a considerable branching ratio to line neutrinos the neutrino sensitivity is comparable with that of $gamma$-rays.
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