Using the Fermi LAT data on the gamma ray emission from dwarf spheroidal galaxies, we get the upper bound on the probability of gamma rays from dark matter decay for the validity of explanation of the anomalous Kolar events as dark matter decay.
We present a general, model-independent formalism for determining bounds on the production of photons in dwarf spheroidal galaxies via dark matter annihilation, applicable to any set of assumptions about dark matter particle physics or astrophysics.
As an illustration, we analyze gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope to constrain a variety of nonstandard dark matter models, several of which have not previously been studied in the context of dwarf galaxy searches.
Dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are prime targets for present and future gamma-ray telescopes hunting for indirect signals of particle dark matter. The interpretation of the data requires careful assessment of their dark matter content in order to d
erive robust constraints on candidate relic particles. Here, we use an optimised spherical Jeans analysis to reconstruct the `astrophysical factor for both annihilating and decaying dark matter in 21 known dSphs. Improvements with respect to previous works are: (i) the use of more flexible luminosity and anisotropy profiles to minimise biases, (ii) the use of weak priors tailored on extensive sets of contamination-free mock data to improve the confidence intervals, (iii) systematic cross-checks of binned and unbinned analyses on mock and real data, and (iv) the use of mock data including stellar contamination to test the impact on reconstructed signals. Our analysis provides updated values for the dark matter content of 8 `classical and 13 `ultrafaint dSphs, with the quoted uncertainties directly linked to the sample size; the more flexible parametrisation we use results in changes compared to previous calculations. This translates into our ranking of potentially-brightest and most robust targets---viz., Ursa Minor, Draco, Sculptor---, and of the more promising, but uncertain targets---viz., Ursa Major 2, Coma---for annihilating dark matter. Our analysis of Segue 1 is extremely sensitive to whether we include or exclude a few marginal member stars, making this target one of the most uncertain. Our analysis illustrates challenges that will need to be addressed when inferring the dark matter content of new `ultrafaint satellites that are beginning to be discovered in southern sky surveys.
Measuring the dark matter distribution in dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) from stellar kinematics is crucial for indirect dark matter searches, as these distributions set the fluxes for both dark matter annihilation (J-Factor) and decay (D-Factor).
Here we produce a compilation of J and D-Factors for dSphs, including new calculations for several newly-discovered Milky Way (MW) satellites, for dSphs outside of the MW virial radius, and for M31 satellites. From this compilation we test for scaling relations between the J and D-factors and physical properties of the dSphs such as the velocity dispersion ($sigma_{mathrm{los}}$), the distance ($d$), and the stellar half-light radius ($r_{1/2}$). We find that the following scaling relation minimizes the residuals as compared to different functional dependencies on the observed dSphs properties $J(0.5 {rm deg}) = 10^{17.72} left(sigma_{mathrm{los}}/5,{rm km , s^{-1}}right)^4 left(d / 100,{rm kpc}right)^{-2}left( r_{1/2}/100 ,{rm pc} right)^{-1}$. We find this relation has considerably smaller scatter as compared to the simpler relations that scale only as $1/d^2$. We further explore scalings with luminosity ($L_V$), and find that the data do not strongly prefer a scaling including $L_V$ as compared to a pure $1/d^2$ scaling. The scaling relations we derive can be used to estimate the J-Factor without the full dynamical analysis, and will be useful for estimating limits on particle dark matter properties from new systems that do not have high-quality stellar kinematics.
Cosmological and astrophysical observations suggest that 85% of the total matter of the Universe is made of Dark Matter (DM). However, its nature remains one of the most challenging and fundamental open questions of particle physics. Assuming particl
e DM, this exotic form of matter cannot consist of Standard Model (SM) particles. Many models have been developed to attempt unraveling the nature of DM such as Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), the most favored particle candidates. WIMP annihilations and decay could produce SM particles which in turn hadronize and decay to give SM secondaries such as high energy $gamma$ rays. In the framework of indirect DM search, observations of promising targets are used to search for signatures of DM annihilation. Among these, the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) are commonly favored owing to their expected high DM content and negligible astrophysical background. In this work, we present the very first combination of 20 dSph observations, performed by the Fermi-LAT, HAWC, H.E.S.S., MAGIC, and VERITAS collaborations in order to maximize the sensitivity of DM searches and improve the current results. We use a joint maximum likelihood approach combining each experiments individual analysis to derive more constraining upper limits on the WIMP DM self-annihilation cross-section as a function of DM particle mass. We present new DM constraints over the widest mass range ever reported, extending from 5 GeV to 100 TeV thanks to the combination of these five different $gamma$-ray instruments.
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are excellent systems to probe the nature of fermionic dark matter due to their high observed dark matter phase-space density. In this work, we review, revise and improve upon previous phase-space considerations to obtain lo
wer bounds on the mass of fermionic dark matter particles. The refinement in the results compared to previous works is realised particularly due to a significantly improved Jeans analysis of the galaxies. We discuss two methods to obtain phase-space bounds on the dark matter mass, one model-independent bound based on Paulis principle, and the other derived from an application of Liouvilles theorem. As benchmark examples for the latter case, we derive constraints for thermally decoupled particles and (non-)resonantly produced sterile neutrinos. Using the Pauli principle, we report a model-independent lower bound of $m geq 0.18,mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m geq 0.13,mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL. For relativistically decoupled thermal relics, this bound is strengthened to $m geq 0.59,mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m geq 0.41,mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL, whilst for non-resonantly produced sterile neutrinos the constraint is $m geq 2.80,mathrm{keV}$ at 68% CL and $m geq 1.74,mathrm{keV}$ at 95% CL. Finally, the phase-space bounds on resonantly produced sterile neutrinos are compared with complementary limits from X-ray, Lyman-$alpha$ and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis observations.