Response to a comment on Dessert et al. “The dark matter interpretation of the 3.5 keV line is inconsistent with blank-sky observations”

Journal Article · Fri Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Physics of the Dark Universe

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2020.100656· OSTI ID:1844369

Dessert, Christopher ^[1]; Rodd, Nicholas L. ^[2]; Safdi, Benjamin R. ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

The dark matter explanation of the 3.5 keV line is strongly disfavored by our work in Dessert et al. (2020). Boyarsky et al. (2004) questions that conclusion: modeling additional background lines is claimed to weaken the limit sufficiently to re-allow a dark matter interpretation. Here, we respond as follows. (1) A more conservative limit is obtained by modeling additional lines; this point appeared in its entirety in our work in Dessert et al. (2020), though we also showed that the inclusion of such lines is not necessary. (2) Despite suggestions in Boyarsky et al. (2004), even the more conservative limits strongly disfavor a decaying dark matter origin of the 3.5 keV line.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; SC0019225
• OSTI ID: 1844369
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1779960
• Journal Information: Physics of the Dark Universe, Vol. 30; ISSN 2212-6864
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS