No Arabic abstract
The very large (100-1000) mass-to-light ratio applicable to the ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) implies a high concentration of dark matter, thus rendering them ideal theatres for indirect signatures of dark matter. In this paper, we consider 14 recently discovered UFDs and study the electromagnetic radiation emanating from them over a wide range, from gamma ray down to radio frequencies. We analyze the Fermi-LAT data on high energy gamma rays and radio fluxes at the GMRT and VLA to obtain upper limits on annihilation cross section $langlesigma vrangle$ in a model independent way. We further discuss the sensitivity of the Square Kilometer Array radio telescope in probing the synchrotron radiation from the aforementioned UFDs. We also investigate the dependences of the said upper limits on the uncertainties in the determination of various astrophysical parameters.
In this paper, we explore the possibility of a linearly polarized gamma-ray signal from dark matter annihilations in the Galactic center. Considering neutral weakly interacting massive particles, a polarized gamma-ray signal can be realized by a two-component dark matter model of Majorana fermions with an anapole moment. We discuss the spin alignment of such dark matter fermions in the Galactic center and then estimate the intensity and the polarizability of the final-state electromagnetic radiation in the dark matter annihilations. For low-mass dark matter, the photon flux at sub-GeV energies may be polarized at a level detectable in current X-ray polarimeters. Depending on the mass ratio between the final-state fermion and DM, the degree of polarization at the mass threshold can reach $70%$ or even higher, providing us with a new tool for probing the nature of dark matter in future gamma-ray polarization experiments.
I show that a recently discovered star cluster near the center of the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Eridanus II provides strong constraints on massive compact halo objects (MACHOs) of >~5 M_sun as the main component of dark matter. MACHO dark matter will dynamically heat the cluster, driving it to larger sizes and higher velocity dispersions until it dissolves into its host galaxy. The stars in compact ultra-faint dwarf galaxies themselves will be subject to the same dynamical heating; the survival of at least ten such galaxies places independent limits on MACHO dark matter of masses >~10 M_sun. Both Eri IIs cluster and the compact ultra-faint dwarfs are characterized by stellar masses of just a few thousand M_sun and half-light radii of 13 pc (for the cluster) and ~30 pc (for the ultra-faint dwarfs). These systems close the ~20--100 M_sun window of allowed MACHO dark matter and combine with existing constraints from microlensing, wide binaries, and disk kinematics to rule out dark matter composed entirely of MACHOs from ~10$^{-7}$ M_sun up to arbitrarily high masses.
Lines in the energy spectrum of gamma rays are a fascinating experimental signal, which are often considered smoking gun evidence of dark matter annihilation. The current generation of gamma ray observatories are currently closing in on parameter space of great interest in the context of dark matter which is a thermal relic. We consider theories in which the dark matters primary connection to the Standard Model is via the top quark, realizing strong gamma ray lines consistent with a thermal relic through the forbidden channel mechanism proposed in the Higgs in Space Model. We consider realistic UV-completions of the Higgs in Space and related theories, and show that a rich structure of observable gamma ray lines is consistent with a thermal relic as well as constraints from dark matter searches and the LHC. Particular attention is paid to the one loop contributions to the continuum gamma rays, which can easily swamp the line signals in some cases, and have been largely overlooked in previous literature.
We present a study of the Galactic Center region as a possible source of both secondary gamma-ray and neutrino fluxes from annihilating dark matter. We have studied the gamma-ray flux observed by the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS) from the J1745-290 Galactic Center source. The data are well fitted as annihilating dark matter in combination with an astrophysical background. The analysis was performed by means of simulated gamma spectra produced by Monte Carlo event generators packages. We analyze the differences in the spectra obtained by the various Monte Carlo codes developed so far in particle physics. We show that, within some uncertainty, the HESS data can be fitted as a signal from a heavy dark matter density distribution peaked at the Galactic Center, with a power-law for the background with a spectral index which is compatible with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) data from the same region. If this kind of dark matter distribution generates the gamma-ray flux observed by HESS, we also expect to observe a neutrino flux. We show prospective results for the observation of secondary neutrinos with the Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch project (ANTARES), Ice Cube Neutrino Observatory (Ice Cube) and the Cubic Kilometer Neutrino Telescope (KM3NeT). Prospects solely depend on the device resolution angle when its effective area and the minimum energy threshold are fixed.
We use new kinematic data from the ultra-faint Milky Way satellite Segue 1 to model its dark matter distribution and derive upper limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section. Using gamma-ray flux upper limits from the Fermi satellite and MAGIC, we determine cross-section exclusion regions for dark matter annihilation into a variety of different particles including charged leptons. We show that these exclusion regions are beginning to probe the regions of interest for a dark matter interpretation of the electron and positron fluxes from PAMELA, Fermi, and HESS, and that future observations of Segue 1 have strong prospects for testing such an interpretation. We additionally discuss prospects for detecting annihilation with neutrinos using the IceCube detector, finding that in an optimistic scenario a few neutrino events may be detected. Finally we use the kinematic data to model the Segue 1 dark matter velocity dispersion and constrain Sommerfeld enhanced models.