THE DETECTABILITY OF DARK MATTER ANNIHILATION WITH FERMI USING THE ANISOTROPY ENERGY SPECTRUM OF THE GAMMA-RAY BACKGROUND

Journal Article · Mon Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/723/1/277· OSTI ID:21467205

Hensley, Brandon S; Pavlidou, Vasiliki ^[1]

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1. Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)

The energy dependence of the anisotropy (the anisotropy energy spectrum) of the large-scale diffuse gamma-ray background can reveal the presence of multiple source populations. Annihilating dark matter in the substructure of the Milky Way halo could give rise to a modulation in the anisotropy energy spectrum of the diffuse gamma-ray emission measured by Fermi, enabling the detection of a dark matter signal. We determine the detectability of a dark-matter-induced modulation for scenarios in which unresolved blazars are the primary contributor to the measured emission above {approx}1 GeV and find that in some scenarios pair-annihilation cross sections on the order of the value expected for thermal relic dark matter can produce a detectable feature. We anticipate that the sensitivity of this technique to specific dark matter models could be improved by tailored likelihood analysis methods.

• OSTI ID: 21467205
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 723; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ANISOTROPY
ANNIHILATION
CROSS SECTIONS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EMISSION
ENERGY DEPENDENCE
ENERGY SPECTRA
GALAXIES
GAMMA RADIATION
INTERACTIONS
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATTER
MILKY WAY
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
RADIATIONS
SPECTRA