H.E.S.S. OBSERVATIONS OF THE GLOBULAR CLUSTERS NGC 6388 AND M15 AND SEARCH FOR A DARK MATTER SIGNAL

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/735/1/12· OSTI ID:21576572

Abramowski, A ^[1]; Acero, F ^[2]; Aharonian, F; Bernloehr, K; Bochow, A ^[3]; Akhperjanian, A G ^[4]; Anton, G; Balzer, A; Brucker, J ^[5]; Barnacka, A ^[6]; Barres de Almeida, U ^[7]; Bazer-Bachi, A R; Borrel, V ^[8]; Becherini, Y ^[9]; Becker, J ^[10]; Behera, B ^[11]; Boisson, C ^[12]; Bolmont, J ^[13]; Bordas, P ^[14]

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1. Universitaet Hamburg, Institut fuer Experimentalphysik, Luruper Chaussee 149, D-22761 Hamburg (Germany)
2. Laboratoire de Physique Theorique et Astroparticules, Universite Montpellier 2, CNRS/IN2P3, CC 70, Place Eugene Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier Cedex 5 (France)
3. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik, P.O. Box 103980, D-69029 Heidelberg (Germany)
4. National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Yerevan (Armenia)
5. Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Physikalisches Institut, Erwin-Rommel-Str. 1, D-91058 Erlangen (Germany)
6. Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, ul. Bartycka 18, 00-716 Warsaw (Poland)
7. Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)
8. Centre d'Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, CNRS/UPS, 9 av. du Colonel Roche, BP 4346, F-31029 Toulouse Cedex 4 (France)
9. Astroparticule et Cosmologie (APC), CNRS, Universite Paris 7 Denis Diderot, 10 rue Alice Domon et Leonie Duquet, F-75205 Paris Cedex 13 (France)
10. Institut fuer Theoretische Physik, Lehrstuhl IV: Weltraum und Astrophysik, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, D-44780 Bochum (Germany)
11. Landessternwarte, Universitaet Heidelberg, Koenigstuhl, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
12. LUTH, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Universite Paris Diderot, 5 Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon (France)
13. LPNHE, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, Universite Denis Diderot Paris 7, CNRS/IN2P3, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75252, Paris Cedex 5 (France)
14. Institut fuer Astronomie und Astrophysik, Universitaet Tuebingen, Sand 1, D-72076 Tuebingen (Germany)

Observations of the globular clusters (GCs) NGC 6388 and M15 were carried out by the High Energy Stereoscopic System array of Cherenkov telescopes for a live time of 27.2 and 15.2 hr, respectively. No gamma-ray signal is found at the nominal target position of NGC 6388 and M15. In the primordial formation scenario, GCs are formed in a dark matter (DM) halo and DM could still be present in the baryon-dominated environment of GCs. This opens the possibility of observing a DM self-annihilation signal. The DM content of the GCs NGC 6388 and M15 is modeled taking into account the astrophysical processes that can be expected to influence the DM distribution during the evolution of the GC: the adiabatic contraction of DM by baryons, the adiabatic growth of a black hole in the DM halo, and the kinetic heating of DM by stars. Ninety-five percent confidence level exclusion limits on the DM particle velocity-weighted annihilation cross section are derived for these DM halos. In the TeV range, the limits on the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section are derived at the 10{sup -25} cm{sup 3} s{sup -1} level and a few 10{sup -24} cm{sup 3} s{sup -1} for NGC 6388 and M15, respectively.

• OSTI ID: 21576572
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 735, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/735/1/12; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ANNIHILATION
BLACK HOLES
CROSS SECTIONS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
SIGNALS
STAR CLUSTERS
EVOLUTION
INTERACTIONS
MATTER
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS