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Register a new userConstraining the Milky Way Dark Matter Density Profile with Gamma-Rays with Fermi-LAT
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Added by
Sergio Palomares-Ruiz
Publication date
2011
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Nicolas Bernal
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We study the abilities of the Fermi-LAT instrument on board of the Fermi mission to simultaneously constrain the Milky Way dark matter density profile and some dark matter particle properties, as annihilation cross section, mass and branching ratio into dominant annihilation channels. A single dark matter density profile is commonly assumed to determine the capabilities of gamma-ray experiments to extract dark matter properties or to set limits on them. However, our knowledge of the Milky Way halo is far from perfect, and thus in general, the obtained results are too optimistic. Here, we study the effect these astrophysical uncertainties would have on the determination of dark matter particle properties and conversely, we show how gamma-ray searches could also be used to learn about the structure of the Milky Way halo, as a complementary tool to other type of observational data that study the gravitational effect caused by the presence of dark matter. In addition, we also show how these results would improve if external information on the annihilation cross section and on the local dark matter density were included and compare our results with the predictions from numerical simulations.
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The Fermi LAT collaboration has recently presented constraints on the gamma-ray signal from annihilating dark matter using separate analyses of a number of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Since the expected annihilation signal has the same physical properties regardless of the target (except for a normalization scale), it is possible to enhance the constraining power using a combined analysis, the initial results of which will be presented here.
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies have a large mass to light ratio and low astrophysical background, and are therefore considered one of the most promising targets for dark matter searches in the gamma-ray band. By applying a joint likelihood analysis, the power of resultant limits in case of no detection can be enhanced and robust constraints on the dark matter parameter space can be obtained. We present results from a combined analysis of 10 dwarf spheroidal galaxies using Fermi-LAT data. Different annihilation channels have been analyzed and uncertainties from astrophysical properties have been taken into account.
Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are among the most promising targets for dark matter searches in gamma rays. We present a search for dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles, applying a joint likelihood analysis to 10 satellite galaxies with 24 months of data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. No dark matter signal is detected. Including the uncertainty in the dark matter distribution, robust upper limits are placed on dark matter annihilation cross sections. The 95% confidence level upper limits range from about 1e-26 cm^3 s^-1 at 5 GeV to about 5e-23 cm^3 s^-1 at 1 TeV, depending on the dark matter annihilation final state. For the first time, using gamma rays, we are able to rule out models with the most generic cross section (~3e-26 cm^3 s^-1 for a purely s-wave cross section), without assuming additional boost factors.
We search for excess gamma-ray emission coincident with the positions of confirmed and candidate Milky Way satellite galaxies using 6 years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Our sample of 45 stellar systems includes 28 kinematically confirmed dark-matter-dominated dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) and 17 recently discovered systems that have photometric characteristics consistent with the population of known dSphs. For each of these targets, the relative predicted gamma-ray flux due to dark matter annihilation is taken from kinematic analysis if available, and estimated from a distance-based scaling relation otherwise, assuming that the stellar systems are dark-matter-dominated dSphs. LAT data coincident with four of the newly discovered targets show a slight preference (each ~$2 sigma$ local) for gamma-ray emission in excess of the background. However, the ensemble of derived gamma-ray flux upper limits for individual targets is consistent with the expectation from analyzing random blank-sky regions, and a combined analysis of the population of stellar systems yields no globally significant excess (global significance $<1 sigma$). Our analysis has increased sensitivity compared to the analysis of 15 confirmed dSphs by Ackermann et al. 2015. The observed constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross section are statistically consistent with the background expectation, improving by a factor of ~2 for large dark matter masses ($m_{{rm DM},b bar b} gtrsim 1$ TeV and $m_{{rm DM},tau^{+}tau^{-}} gtrsim 70$ GeV) and weakening by a factor of ~1.5 at lower masses relative to previously observed limits.
The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) is a powerful pulsar detector, as demonstrated by the over one hundred objects in its second catalog of pulsars. Pass 8 is a new reconstruction and event selection strategy developed by the Fermi-LAT collaboration. Due to the increased acceptance at low energy, Pass 8 improves the pulsation detection sensitivity. Ten new pulsars rise above the 5 sigma threshold and are presented in this work, as well as one previously seen with the former Pass 7 reconstruction. More than 60$%$ of the known pulsars with spin-down power ($dot{E}$) greater than $10^{36}$ erg/s show pulsations in gamma-rays, as seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Many non-detections of these energetic pulsars are thought to be a consequence of a high background level, or a large distance leading to a flux below the sensitivity limit of the instrument. The gamma-ray beams of the others probably miss the Earth. The new Pass 8 data now allows the detection of gamma ray pulsations from three of these high spin-down pulsars, PSRs J1828$-$1101, J1831$-$0952 and J1837$-$0604, as well as three others with $dot{E}$ $ge 10^{35}$ erg/s. We report on their properties and we discuss the reasons for their detection with Pass 8.
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