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Register a new userImproved Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation to a Line using Fermi-LAT observations of Galaxy Clusters
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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.
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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.
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.
We used radio observations of the neighbour galaxy M31 in order to put constraints on dark matter particle mass and annihilation cross section. Dark matter annihilation in M31 halo produces highly energetic leptons, which emit synchrotron radiation on radio frequencies in the galactic magnetic field. We predicted expected radio fluxes for the two annihilation channels: chichi -> bb* and chichi -> tau^+tau^-. We then compared them with available data on the central radio emission of M31 as observed by four radio surveys: VLSS (74 MHz), WENSS (325 MHz), NVSS (1400 MHz) and GB6 (4850 MHz). Assuming a standard NFW dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section <sigma v> = 3*10^{-26} cm^3/s or higher are only allowed for WIMP masses greater than 100 GeV and 55 GeV for annihilation into bb* and tau^+tau^- respectively. Taking into account potential uncertainties in the distributions of DM density and magnetic field, the mentioned WIMP limiting masses can be as low as 23 GeV for both channels, and as high as 280 and 130 GeV for annihilation into bb* and tau^+tau^- respectively. These mass values exceed the best up-to-day known constraints from Fermi gamma observations: 40 GeV and 19 GeV respectively [A.Geringer-Sameth and S.M.Koushiappas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 241303 (2011)]. Precise measurements of the magnetic field in the relevant region and better reconstruction of the DM density profile of M31 will be able to reduce the uncertainties of our exclusion limits.
We have performed an analysis of the diffuse gamma-ray emission with the Fermi Large Area Telescope in the Milky Way Halo region searching for a signal from dark matter annihilation or decay. In the absence of a robust dark matter signal, constraints are presented. We consider both gamma rays produced directly in the dark matter annihilation/decay and produced by inverse Compton scattering of the e+e- produced in the annihilation/decay. Conservative limits are derived requiring that the dark matter signal does not exceed the observed diffuse gamma-ray emission. A second set of more stringent limits is derived based on modeling the foreground astrophysical diffuse emission using the GALPROP code. Uncertainties in the height of the diffusive cosmic-ray halo, the distribution of the cosmic-ray sources in the Galaxy, the index of the injection cosmic-ray electron spectrum and the column density of the interstellar gas are taken into account using a profile likelihood formalism, while the parameters governing the cosmic-ray propagation have been derived from fits to local cosmic-ray data. The resulting limits impact the range of particle masses over which dark matter thermal production in the early Universe is possible, and challenge the interpretation of the PAMELA/Fermi-LAT cosmic ray anomalies as annihilation of dark matter.
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.
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