Searching for dark matter annihilation in the Smith high-velocity cloud
- Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
- Departamento de Fisíca, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Santiago (Chile)
- CRESST, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250 (United States)
- The Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
- W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
Recent observations suggest that some high-velocity clouds may be confined by massive dark matter halos. In particular, the proximity and proposed dark matter content of the Smith Cloud make it a tempting target for the indirect detection of dark matter annihilation. We argue that the Smith Cloud may be a better target than some Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies and use γ-ray observations from the Fermi Large Area Telescope to search for a dark matter annihilation signal. No significant γ-ray excess is found coincident with the Smith Cloud, and we set strong limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section assuming a spatially extended dark matter profile consistent with dynamical modeling of the Smith Cloud. Notably, these limits exclude the canonical thermal relic cross section (∼ 3 × 10{sup –26} cm{sup 3} s{sup –1}) for dark matter masses ≲ 30 GeV annihilating via the b b-bar or τ{sup +}τ{sup –} channels for certain assumptions of the dark matter density profile; however, uncertainties in the dark matter content of the Smith Cloud may significantly weaken these constraints.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365627
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 790, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Searching for dark matter annihilation in recently discovered Milky Way satellites with Fermi-LAT
A New Target Object for Constraining Annihilating Dark Matter