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Title: Galactic Center gamma-ray ''excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre?

Abstract

Several groups have recently claimed evidence for an unaccounted gamma-ray excess over the diffuse backgrounds at few GeV in the Fermi-LAT data in a region around the Galactic Center, consistent with a dark matter annihilation origin. We demonstrate that the main spectral and angular features of this excess can be reproduced if they are mostly due to inverse Compton emission from high-energy electrons injected in a burst event of ∼ 10{sup 52}÷10{sup 53} erg roughly O(10{sup 6}) years ago. We consider this example as a proof of principle that time-dependent phenomena need to be understood and accounted for—together with detailed diffuse foregrounds and unaccounted ''steady state'' astrophysical sources—before any robust inference can be made about dark matter signals at the Galactic Center. In addition, we point out that the timescale suggested by our study, which controls both the energy cutoff and the angular extension of the signal, intriguingly matches (together with the energy budget) what is indirectly inferred by other evidences suggesting a very active Galactic Center in the past, for instance related to intense star formation and accretion phenomena.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 4, 21000 Novi Sad (Serbia)
  2. LAPTh, Univ. de Savoie, CNRS, B.P.110, Annecy-le-Vieux F-74941 (France)
  3. Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Strada Costiera 11, 34151 Trieste (Italy)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22375806
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 2014; Journal Issue: 10; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 1475-7516
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ANNIHILATION; ASTROPHYSICS; ECOSYSTEMS; ELECTRONS; EMISSION; ENERGY BALANCE; GAMMA RADIATION; GEV RANGE 01-10; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; ORIGIN; SIGNALS; STARS; TIME DEPENDENCE

Citation Formats

Petrović, Jovana, Serpico, Pasquale Dario, and Zaharijaš, Gabrijela. Galactic Center gamma-ray ''excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre?. United States: N. p., 2014. Web. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/052.
Petrović, Jovana, Serpico, Pasquale Dario, & Zaharijaš, Gabrijela. Galactic Center gamma-ray ''excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre?. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/052
Petrović, Jovana, Serpico, Pasquale Dario, and Zaharijaš, Gabrijela. 2014. "Galactic Center gamma-ray ''excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre?". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/052.
@article{osti_22375806,
title = {Galactic Center gamma-ray ''excess'' from an active past of the Galactic Centre?},
author = {Petrović, Jovana and Serpico, Pasquale Dario and Zaharijaš, Gabrijela},
abstractNote = {Several groups have recently claimed evidence for an unaccounted gamma-ray excess over the diffuse backgrounds at few GeV in the Fermi-LAT data in a region around the Galactic Center, consistent with a dark matter annihilation origin. We demonstrate that the main spectral and angular features of this excess can be reproduced if they are mostly due to inverse Compton emission from high-energy electrons injected in a burst event of ∼ 10{sup 52}÷10{sup 53} erg roughly O(10{sup 6}) years ago. We consider this example as a proof of principle that time-dependent phenomena need to be understood and accounted for—together with detailed diffuse foregrounds and unaccounted ''steady state'' astrophysical sources—before any robust inference can be made about dark matter signals at the Galactic Center. In addition, we point out that the timescale suggested by our study, which controls both the energy cutoff and the angular extension of the signal, intriguingly matches (together with the energy budget) what is indirectly inferred by other evidences suggesting a very active Galactic Center in the past, for instance related to intense star formation and accretion phenomena.},
doi = {10.1088/1475-7516/2014/10/052},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22375806}, journal = {Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics},
issn = {1475-7516},
number = 10,
volume = 2014,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014},
month = {Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014}
}