Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess
Abstract
Statistical evidence has previously implied that the galactic center GeV excess (GCE) originates largely from point sources, and not from annihilating dark matter. Here, we examine the impact of unmodeled source populations on identifying the true origin of the GCE using non-Poissonian template fitting (NPTF) methods. In a proof-of-principle example with simulated data, we discover that unmodeled sources in the Fermi bubbles can lead to a dark matter signal being misattributed to point sources by the NPTF. We discover striking behavior consistent with a mismodeling effect in the real Fermi data, finding that large artificial injected dark matter signals are completely misattributed to point sources. Consequently, we conclude that dark matter may provide a dominant contribution to the GCE after all.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2]
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for Theoretical Physics
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for Theoretical Physics; Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Contributing Org.:
- DESY Theory Group; Princeton Institute for Advanced Study
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1596610
- Report Number(s):
- MIT-CTP-5104
Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007; PRLTAO; arXiv:1904.08430; TRN: US2102894
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0013999; SC0012567
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 123; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; 72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; gamma ray astronomy; particle dark matter
Citation Formats
Leane, Rebecca K., and Slatyer, Tracy R. Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241101.
Leane, Rebecca K., & Slatyer, Tracy R. Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241101
Leane, Rebecca K., and Slatyer, Tracy R. Wed .
"Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241101. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1596610.
@article{osti_1596610,
title = {Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess},
author = {Leane, Rebecca K. and Slatyer, Tracy R.},
abstractNote = {Statistical evidence has previously implied that the galactic center GeV excess (GCE) originates largely from point sources, and not from annihilating dark matter. Here, we examine the impact of unmodeled source populations on identifying the true origin of the GCE using non-Poissonian template fitting (NPTF) methods. In a proof-of-principle example with simulated data, we discover that unmodeled sources in the Fermi bubbles can lead to a dark matter signal being misattributed to point sources by the NPTF. We discover striking behavior consistent with a mismodeling effect in the real Fermi data, finding that large artificial injected dark matter signals are completely misattributed to point sources. Consequently, we conclude that dark matter may provide a dominant contribution to the GCE after all.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241101},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 24,
volume = 123,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {12}
}
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