DARK MATTER SEARCH USING XMM-NEWTON OBSERVATIONS OF WILLMAN 1

Journal Article · Fri Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/751/2/82· OSTI ID:22037206

Loewenstein, Michael ^[1]; Kusenko, Alexander ^[2]

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547 (United States)

We report the results of a search for an emission line from radiatively decaying dark matter in the ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy Willman 1 based on analysis of spectra extracted from XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory data. The observation follows up our analysis of Chandra data of Willman 1 that resulted in line flux upper limits over the Chandra bandpass and evidence of a 2.5 keV feature at a significance below the 99% confidence threshold used to define the limits. The higher effective area of the XMM-Newton detectors, combined with application of recently developing methods for extended-source analysis, allows us to derive improved constraints on the combination of mass and mixing angle of the sterile neutrino dark matter candidate. We do not confirm the Chandra evidence for a 2.5 keV emission line.

• OSTI ID: 22037206
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 751; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
COSMIC NEUTRINOS
EMISSION SPECTRA
KEV RANGE
NONLUMINOUS MATTER
PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION
REST MASS
WEINBERG ANGLE
X RADIATION
X-RAY GALAXIES