DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background

Abstract

If the dark matter is unstable, the decay of these particles throughout the universe and in the halo of the Milky Way could contribute significantly to the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB) as measured by Fermi. Here, we calculate the high-latitude gamma-ray flux resulting from dark matter decay for a wide range of channels and masses, including all contributions from inverse Compton scattering and accounting for the production and full evolution of cosmological electromagnetic cascades. We also make use of recent multi-wavelength analyses that constrain the astrophysical contributions to the IGRB, enabling us to more strongly restrict the presence any component arising from decaying dark matter. Lastly, over a wide range of decay channels and masses (from GeV to EeV and above), we derive stringent lower limits on the dark matter's lifetime, generally in the range of τ ~ (1-5)× 1028 s.}

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
OSTI Identifier:
1488590
Report Number(s):
arXiv:1811.05988; FERMILAB-PUB-18-627-A
Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516; 1703761
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-07CH11359
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2019; Journal Issue: 03; Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS

Citation Formats

Blanco, Carlos, and Hooper, Dan. Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2019/03/019.
Blanco, Carlos, & Hooper, Dan. Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2019/03/019
Blanco, Carlos, and Hooper, Dan. Mon . "Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2019/03/019. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1488590.
@article{osti_1488590,
title = {Constraints on decaying dark matter from the isotropic gamma-ray background},
author = {Blanco, Carlos and Hooper, Dan},
abstractNote = {If the dark matter is unstable, the decay of these particles throughout the universe and in the halo of the Milky Way could contribute significantly to the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB) as measured by Fermi. Here, we calculate the high-latitude gamma-ray flux resulting from dark matter decay for a wide range of channels and masses, including all contributions from inverse Compton scattering and accounting for the production and full evolution of cosmological electromagnetic cascades. We also make use of recent multi-wavelength analyses that constrain the astrophysical contributions to the IGRB, enabling us to more strongly restrict the presence any component arising from decaying dark matter. Lastly, over a wide range of decay channels and masses (from GeV to EeV and above), we derive stringent lower limits on the dark matter's lifetime, generally in the range of τ ~ (1-5)× 1028 s.}},
doi = {10.1088/1475-7516/2019/03/019},
journal = {Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics},
number = 03,
volume = 2019,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Mar 11 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Mon Mar 11 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 44 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay from the isotropic gamma-ray background
journal, April 2017


Precise Relic WIMP Abundance and its Impact on Searches for Dark Matter Annihilation
text, January 2012


γ -ray Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter and Implications for IceCube
journal, July 2017


Neutralino with the right cold dark matter abundance in (almost) any supersymmetric model
journal, July 2006


Constraining very heavy dark matter using diffuse backgrounds of neutrinos and cascaded gamma rays
journal, October 2012


keV sterile neutrino dark matter from singlet scalar decays: basic concepts and subtle features
journal, June 2015


Statistics of Cosmological Black Hole Jet Sources: Blazar Predictions for the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope
journal, April 2007

  • Dermer, Charles D.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 659, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1086/512533

Gamma ray constraints on decaying dark matter
journal, October 2012


PeV-Scale Dark Matter as a Thermal Relic of a Decoupled Sector
text, January 2016


The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
text, January 1995


Probing dark matter decay and annihilation with Fermi LAT observations of nearby galaxy clusters
journal, January 2012

  • Huang, Xiaoyuan; Vertongen, Gilles; Weniger, Christoph
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 01
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2012/01/042

Radio galaxies dominate the high-energy diffuse gamma-ray background
journal, August 2016

  • Hooper, Dan; Linden, Tim; Lopez, Alejandro
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 08
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/08/019

Gamma-ray constraints on maximum cosmogenic neutrino fluxes and UHECR source evolution models
journal, January 2012

  • Gelmini, Graciela B.; Kalashev, Oleg; Semikoz, Dmitri V.
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 01
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2012/01/044

New production mechanism for keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter by decays of frozen-in scalars
journal, March 2014

  • Merle, Alexander; Niro, Viviana; Schmidt, Daniel
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 03
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/03/028

Anisotropies in the diffuse gamma-ray background measured by the Fermi-LAT
conference, October 2011

  • Siegal-Gaskins, Jennifer
  • Proceedings of Identification of Dark Matter 2010 — PoS(IDM2010)
  • DOI: 10.22323/1.110.0114

The high-energy diffuse cosmic gamma-ray background radiation from blazars
journal, June 1993

  • Stecker, F. W.; Salamon, M. H.; Malkan, M. A.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 410
  • DOI: 10.1086/186882

Non-thermal cosmic backgrounds from blazars: the contribution to the CMB, X-ray and γ -ray backgrounds
journal, January 2006


Constraining dark matter lifetime with a deep gamma-ray survey of the Perseus galaxy cluster with MAGIC
journal, December 2018


Pinpointing cosmic ray propagation with the AMS-02 experiment
journal, June 2010

  • Pato, Miguel; Hooper, Dan; Simet, Melanie
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 06
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2010/06/022

Constraints on decaying dark matter from Fermi observations of nearby galaxies and clusters
journal, December 2010

  • Dugger, Leanna; Jeltema, Tesla E.; Profumo, Stefano
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2010/12/015

Anisotropies in the diffuse gamma-ray background measured by the Fermi-LAT
journal, November 2012

  • Cuoco, A.; Linden, T.; Mazziotta, M. N.
  • Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, Vol. 692
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2011.12.093

Contribution from Star-Forming Galaxies to the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background Radiation
text, January 2010


PeV-scale dark matter as a thermal relic of a decoupled sector
journal, September 2016


The Spectral Shape of the Gamma‐Ray Background from Blazars
journal, January 2008

  • Pavlidou, Vasiliki; Venters, Tonia M.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 673, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1086/523956

Implications of a 21-cm signal for dark matter annihilation and decay
journal, July 2018


Probing Dark Matter Decay and Annihilation with Fermi LAT Observations of Nearby Galaxy Clusters
text, January 2011


Thermal Dark Matter From A Highly Decoupled Sector
text, January 2016


Extragalactic background light inferred from AEGIS galaxy-SED-type fractions: EBL from AEGIS galaxy-SED-type fractions
journal, October 2010


The Cosmic Evolution of Fermi BL Lacertae Objects
text, January 2013


The gamma ray background from large scale structure formation
text, January 2002


Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
journal, October 2015


Star-forming galaxies significantly contribute to the isotropic gamma-ray background
journal, October 2017


Cosmological moduli and the post-inflationary universe: A critical review
journal, July 2015

  • Kane, Gordon; Sinha, Kuver; Watson, Scott
  • International Journal of Modern Physics D, Vol. 24, Issue 08
  • DOI: 10.1142/S0218271815300220

Updated search for spectral lines from Galactic dark matter interactions with pass 8 data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
journal, June 2015


Dissecting the gamma-ray background in search of dark matter
journal, February 2014

  • Cholis, Ilias; Hooper, Dan; McDermott, Samuel D.
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 02
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/02/014

γ-cascade: a simple program to compute cosmological gamma-ray propagation
journal, January 2019


The Guaranteed Gamma-Ray Background
journal, August 2002

  • Pavlidou, Vasiliki; Fields, Brian D.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 575, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1086/342670

Joint anisotropy and source count constraints on the contribution of blazars to the diffuse gamma-ray background
text, January 2012


A fresh look at linear cosmological constraints on a decaying dark matter component
text, January 2016


Gamma Rays from Intergalactic Shocks
journal, March 2003

  • Keshet, Uri; Waxman, Eli; Loeb, Abraham
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 585, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1086/345946

Model-Independent Bound on the Dark Matter Lifetime
text, January 2007


A fresh look at linear cosmological constraints on a decaying Dark Matter component
journal, August 2016

  • Poulin, Vivian; Serpico, Pasquale D.; Lesgourgues, Julien
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2016, Issue 08
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2016/08/036

New Production Mechanism for keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter by Decays of Frozen-In Scalars
text, January 2013


Extragalactic Inverse Compton Light from Dark Matter annihilation and the Pamela positron excess
journal, July 2009


Constraining very heavy dark matter using diffuse backgrounds of neutrinos and cascaded gamma rays
journal, October 2012


Cosmic-Ray Propagation and Interactions in the Galaxy
journal, November 2007


Effect of a late decaying scalar on the neutralino relic density
journal, October 2006


Gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds as probes of the high-energy universe: hints of cascades, general constraints, and implications for TeV searches
journal, August 2012

  • Murase, Kohta; Beacom, John F.; Takami, Hajime
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 08
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2012/08/030

Klein–Nishina steps in the energy spectrum of galactic cosmic-ray electrons
journal, March 2010


Dark matter annihilations and decays after the AMS-02 positron measurements
text, January 2013


The Structure of Cold Dark Matter Halos
journal, May 1996

  • Navarro, Julio F.; Frenk, Carlos S.; White, Simon D. M.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 462
  • DOI: 10.1086/177173

Constraining heavy decaying dark matter with the high energy gamma-ray limits
journal, September 2016


The effect of a late decaying scalar on the neutralino relic density
text, January 2006


A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
journal, December 1997

  • Navarro, Julio F.; Frenk, Carlos S.; White, Simon D. M.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 490, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1086/304888

Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
text, January 2015


On the detectability of gamma rays from clusters of galaxies: mergers versus secondary infall
journal, February 2004


Thermal dark matter from a highly decoupled sector
journal, November 2016


Almost closing the ν MSM sterile neutrino dark matter window with NuSTAR
journal, June 2017


Constraints on decaying dark matter from Fermi observations of nearby galaxies and clusters
journal, December 2010

  • Dugger, Leanna; Jeltema, Tesla E.; Profumo, Stefano
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 12
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2010/12/015

Gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds as probes of the high-energy universe: hints of cascades, general constraints, and implications for TeV searches
journal, August 2012

  • Murase, Kohta; Beacom, John F.; Takami, Hajime
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 08
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2012/08/030

Circum-Galactic Gas and the Isotropic Gamma Ray Background
text, January 2012


THE SPECTRUM OF ISOTROPIC DIFFUSE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION BETWEEN 100 MeV AND 820 GeV
journal, January 2015


The Spectral Shape of the Gamma-ray Background from Blazars
text, January 2007


Constraining dark matter properties with SPI
journal, July 2008


Novel gamma-ray signatures of PeV-scale dark matter
journal, April 2018

  • Blanco, Carlos; Harding, J. Patrick; Hooper, Dan
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2018, Issue 04
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2018/04/060

Contribution from Star-Forming Galaxies to the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background Radiation
conference, June 2011

  • Ryu, Makiya
  • Proceedings of 25th Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics — PoS(Texas 2010)
  • DOI: 10.22323/1.123.0153

Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
text, January 2015


Spectrum of the Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission Derived from First-Year Fermi Large Area Telescope Data
journal, March 2010


The Gamma-Ray Background from Blazars: A New Look
journal, June 1996

  • Stecker, F. W.; Salamon, M. H.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 464
  • DOI: 10.1086/177348

Gamma-Ray Constraints on Maximum Cosmogenic Neutrino Fluxes and UHECR Source Evolution Models
text, January 2011


Constraining dark matter lifetime with a deep gamma-ray survey of the Perseus galaxy cluster with MAGIC
text, January 2018

  • Acciari, V. A.; Ansoldi, S.; Antonelli, L. A.
  • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
  • DOI: 10.3204/pubdb-2018-03435

EGRET Observations of the Extragalactic Gamma‐Ray Emission
journal, February 1998

  • Sreekumar, P.; Bertsch, D. L.; Dingus, B. L.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 494, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1086/305222

Cosmic Gamma-Ray Background from Star-Forming Galaxies
journal, October 2010


The Guaranteed Gamma-Ray Background
text, January 2002


Model-independent bound on the dark matter lifetime
journal, July 2008


Superheavy dark matter and IceCube neutrino signals: Bounds on decaying dark matter
journal, July 2015


Unitarity limits on the mass and radius of dark-matter particles
journal, February 1990


Precise relic WIMP abundance and its impact on searches for dark matter annihilation
journal, July 2012


Pinpointing Cosmic Ray Propagation With The AMS-02 Experiment
text, January 2010


CONSTRAINTS ON THE GALACTIC HALO DARK MATTER FROM FERMI -LAT DIFFUSE MEASUREMENTS
journal, November 2012


The Spectrum of Isotropic Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission Between 100 MeV and 820 GeV
text, January 2015

  • Ackermann, Markus; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.
  • Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, DESY, Hamburg
  • DOI: 10.3204/pubdb-2016-00033

Circum-Galactic gas and the Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background
journal, December 2012


Extragalactic Inverse Compton Light from Dark Matter annihilation and the Pamela positron excess
journal, July 2009


The cosmic gamma-ray background from the annihilation of primordial stable neutral heavy leptons
journal, August 1978

  • Stecker, F. W.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 223
  • DOI: 10.1086/156336

Some astrophysical consequences of the existence of a heavy stable neutral lepton
journal, August 1978

  • Gunn, J. E.; Lee, B. W.; Lerche, I.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 223
  • DOI: 10.1086/156335

Models of the contribution of blazars to the anisotropy of the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background
journal, November 2012

  • Harding, J. Patrick; Abazajian, Kevork N.
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2012, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2012/11/026

Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter from Fermi Observations of Nearby Galaxies and Clusters
text, January 2010


Implications of the Fermi-LAT diffuse gamma-ray measurements on annihilating or decaying dark matter
journal, July 2010

  • Hütsi, Gert; Hektor, Andi; Raidal, Martti
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2010, Issue 07
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2010/07/008

Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
journal, August 2015


Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background
text, January 2015


Dissecting the Gamma-Ray Background in Search of Dark Matter
text, January 2013


New production mechanism for keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter by decays of frozen-in scalars
journal, March 2014

  • Merle, Alexander; Niro, Viviana; Schmidt, Daniel
  • Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 03
  • DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2014/03/028

Very high energy γ ray absorption by the galactic interstellar radiation field
journal, March 2006


micrOMEGAs5.0 : Freeze-in
journal, October 2018


The Starburst Contribution to the Extra-Galactic Gamma-Ray Background
text, January 2006


THE COSMIC EVOLUTION OF FERMI BL LACERTAE OBJECTS
journal, December 2013


Gamma‐Ray Luminosity Function of Blazars and the Cosmic Gamma‐Ray Background: Evidence for the Luminosity‐Dependent Density Evolution
journal, May 2006

  • Narumoto, Takuro; Totani, Tomonori
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 643, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1086/502708

The blazar gamma-ray luminosity function and the diffuse extragalactic gamma-ray background
journal, July 1994

  • Salamon, M. H.; Stecker, F. W.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 430
  • DOI: 10.1086/187428

PeV-Scale Dark Matter as a Thermal Relic of a Decoupled Sector
text, January 2016


Blazars and Cosmic Backgrounds
journal, December 2006

  • Colafrancesco, Sergio; Giommi, Paolo
  • Chinese Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 6, Issue S1
  • DOI: 10.1088/1009-9271/6/s1/04

Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background
journal, May 2015


THE FERMI -LAT HIGH-LATITUDE SURVEY: SOURCE COUNT DISTRIBUTIONS AND THE ORIGIN OF THE EXTRAGALACTIC DIFFUSE BACKGROUND
journal, August 2010


An introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
journal, June 2015

  • Sjöstrand, Torbjörn; Ask, Stefan; Christiansen, Jesper R.
  • Computer Physics Communications, Vol. 191
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.cpc.2015.01.024

The Starburst Contribution to the Extragalactic γ‐Ray Background
journal, January 2007

  • Thompson, Todd A.; Quataert, Eliot; Waxman, Eli
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 654, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1086/509068

BLAZARS AS ULTRA-HIGH-ENERGY COSMIC-RAY SOURCES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TeV GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATIONS
journal, March 2012


Diffuse gamma radiation
journal, June 1978

  • Fichtel, C. E.; Simpson, G. A.; Thompson, D. J.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 222
  • DOI: 10.1086/156202

Attenuation of Very High Energy Gamma Rays by the Milky Way Interstellar Radiation Field
journal, March 2006

  • Moskalenko, Igor V.; Porter, Troy A.; Strong, Andrew W.
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 640, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1086/503524

Constraining heavy decaying dark matter with the high energy gamma-ray limits
text, January 2016


THE FERMI LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON ORBIT: EVENT CLASSIFICATION, INSTRUMENT RESPONSE FUNCTIONS, AND CALIBRATION
journal, October 2012

  • Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Albert, A.
  • The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 203, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1088/0067-0049/203/1/4

Cosmic-ray propagation and interactions in the Galaxy
text, January 2007


Compton scattering of relativistic electrons in compact X-ray sources
journal, October 1981

  • Aharonian, F. A.; Atoyan, A. M.
  • Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 79, Issue 2, p. 321-336
  • DOI: 10.1007/BF00649428

Works referencing / citing this record:

Dark matter decaying into millicharged particles as a solution to AMS-02 positron excess
journal, April 2019


Fermi-LAT Observations of Gamma-Ray Emission Towards the Outer Halo of M31
conference, July 2019

  • Karwin, Chris; Murgia, Simona; Campbell, Sheldon
  • Proceedings of 36th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2019)
  • DOI: 10.22323/1.358.0570

Dark matter and bubble nucleation in old neutron stars
journal, November 2019


Annihilation signatures of hidden sector dark matter within early-forming microhalos
journal, November 2019


Breaking a dark degeneracy: The gamma-ray signature of early matter domination
text, January 2019


Superheavy Thermal Dark Matter
journal, November 2019


Fermi -LAT Observations of γ -Ray Emission toward the Outer Halo of M31
journal, July 2019

  • Karwin, Christopher M.; Murgia, Simona; Campbell, Sheldon
  • The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 880, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab2880