Probing dark matter with active galactic nuclei jets

Journal Article · Fri Oct 15 04:00:00 UTC 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.083514· OSTI ID:21432360

Gorchtein, Mikhail ^[1]; Profumo, Stefano; Ubaldi, Lorenzo ^[2]

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1. Center for the Exploration of Energy and Matter, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47408 (United States)
2. Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics and Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064 (United States)

We study the possibility of detecting a signature of particle dark matter in the spectrum of gamma-ray photons from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) resulting from the scattering of high-energy particles in the AGN jet off of dark matter particles. We consider particle dark matter models in the context of both supersymmetry and universal extra dimensions , and we present the complete lowest-order calculation for processes where a photon is emitted in dark matter-electron and/or dark matter-proton scattering, where electrons and protons belong to the AGN jet. We find that the process is dominated by a resonance whose energy is dictated by the particle spectrum in the dark matter sector (neutralino and selectron for the case of supersymmetry, Kaluza-Klein photon and electron for universal extra dimensions ). The resulting gamma-ray spectrum exhibits a very characteristic spectral feature, consisting of a sharp break to a hard power-law behavior. Although the normalization of the gamma-ray flux depends strongly on assumptions on both the AGN jet geometry, composition and particle spectrum as well as on the particle dark matter model and density distribution, we show that for realistic parameters choices, and for two prominent nearby AGNs (Centaurus A and M87), the detection of this effect is in principle possible. Finally, we compare our predictions and results with recent gamma-ray observations from the Fermi, H.E.S.S., and VERITAS telescopes.

• OSTI ID: 21432360
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 82; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
BARYONS
BOSONS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DETECTION
DISTRIBUTION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELECTRONS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
EVALUATION
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FORECASTING
GALAXY NUCLEI
GAMMA RADIATION
GAMMA SPECTRA
HADRONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
KALUZA-KLEIN THEORY
LEPTONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATTER
MESONS
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
NUCLEONS
PARTICLES
PHOTONS
PROTONS
RADIATIONS
SCATTERING
SPECTRA
SUPERSYMMETRY
SYMMETRY
UNIFIED-FIELD THEORIES