Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess

Journal Article · 11 December 2019 · Physical Review Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.241101 · OSTI ID:1596610

Leane, Rebecca K.  ^[1]; Slatyer, Tracy R.  ^[2]

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1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States). Center for Theoretical Physics
2. 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

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.

• Research Organization: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
• Contributing Organization: DESY Theory Group; Princeton Institute for Advanced Study
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0013999; SC0012567
• OSTI ID: 1596610
• Report Number(s): MIT-CTP-5104; PRLTAO; arXiv:1904.08430; TRN: US2102894
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 24; ISSN 0031-9007
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English