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Title: Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations

Abstract

Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model that could explain the observed neutrino masses while also making up the dark matter (DM) of the universe. If sterile neutrinos are DM then they may slowly decay into active neutrinos and photons, giving rise to the possibility of their detection through narrow spectral features in astrophysical x-ray data sets. Here, we perform the most sensitive search to date for this and other decaying DM scenarios across the mass range from 5 to 16 keV using archival XMM-Newton data. We reduce 547 Ms of data from both the MOS and PN instruments using observations taken across the full sky and then use this data to search for evidence of DM decay in the ambient halo of the Milky Way. We determine the instrumental and astrophysical baselines with data taken far away from the Galactic Center, and use Gaussian process modeling to capture additional continuum background contributions. No evidence is found for unassociated x-ray lines, leading us to produce the strongest constraints to date on decaying DM in this mass range.

Authors:
 [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1821150
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; SC0019225; PHY-1505463; ACI-1450310; OAC-1836650; OAC-1841471
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 127; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; dark matter; particle dark matter; x ray astronomy; sterile neutrinos

Citation Formats

Foster, Joshua W., Kongsore, Marius, Dessert, Christopher, Park, Yujin, Rodd, Nicholas L., Cranmer, Kyle, and Safdi, Benjamin R. Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations. United States: N. p., 2021. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101.
Foster, Joshua W., Kongsore, Marius, Dessert, Christopher, Park, Yujin, Rodd, Nicholas L., Cranmer, Kyle, & Safdi, Benjamin R. Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101
Foster, Joshua W., Kongsore, Marius, Dessert, Christopher, Park, Yujin, Rodd, Nicholas L., Cranmer, Kyle, and Safdi, Benjamin R. Fri . "Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1821150.
@article{osti_1821150,
title = {Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations},
author = {Foster, Joshua W. and Kongsore, Marius and Dessert, Christopher and Park, Yujin and Rodd, Nicholas L. and Cranmer, Kyle and Safdi, Benjamin R.},
abstractNote = {Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model that could explain the observed neutrino masses while also making up the dark matter (DM) of the universe. If sterile neutrinos are DM then they may slowly decay into active neutrinos and photons, giving rise to the possibility of their detection through narrow spectral features in astrophysical x-ray data sets. Here, we perform the most sensitive search to date for this and other decaying DM scenarios across the mass range from 5 to 16 keV using archival XMM-Newton data. We reduce 547 Ms of data from both the MOS and PN instruments using observations taken across the full sky and then use this data to search for evidence of DM decay in the ambient halo of the Milky Way. We determine the instrumental and astrophysical baselines with data taken far away from the Galactic Center, and use Gaussian process modeling to capture additional continuum background contributions. No evidence is found for unassociated x-ray lines, leading us to produce the strongest constraints to date on decaying DM in this mass range.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 5,
volume = 127,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Fri Jul 30 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}

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