New Limits to the Infrared Background: Bounds on Radiative Neutrino Decay and on Contributions of Very Massive Objects to the Dark Matter Problem
- Oxford University, Oxford (United Kingdom)
- Washington University, St.Louis, Missouri 63130 (United States)
- University of Leeds, Leeds (United Kingdom)
- University College, Dublin (Ireland)
- Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 (United States)
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 (United States)
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
- Whipple Observatory, Amado, Arizona 85645 (United States)
From considering the effect of {gamma} -{gamma} interactions on recently observed TeV gamma-ray spectra, improved limits are set to the density of extragalactic infrared photons which are robust and essentially model independent. The resulting limits are more than an order of magnitude more restrictive than direct observations in the 0.025{endash}0.3 eV regime. These limits are used to improve constraints on radiative neutrino decay in the mass range above 0.05 eV and to rule out very massive objects as providing the dark matter needed to explain galaxy rotation curves. Lower bounds on the maximum distance which TeV gamma rays may probe are also derived. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society}
- OSTI ID:
- 599154
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 80, Issue 14; Other Information: PBD: Apr 1998
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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