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Title: Limits on dark matter annihilation signals from the Fermi LAT 4-year measurement of the isotropic gamma-ray background

Journal Article · · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
 [1]
  1. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Zeuthen (Germany). et al.

Here, we search for evidence of dark matter (DM) annihilation in the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB) measured with 50 months of Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) observations. An improved theoretical description of the cosmological DM annihilation signal, based on two complementary techniques and assuming generic weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) properties, renders more precise predictions compared to previous work. Moreover, we estimate the cosmologically-induced gamma-ray intensity to have an uncertainty of a factor ~ 20 in canonical setups. We consistently include both the Galactic and extragalactic signals under the same theoretical framework, and study the impact of the former on the IGRB spectrum derivation. We find no evidence for a DM signal and we set limits on the DM-induced isotropic gamma-ray signal. Our limits are competitive for DM particle masses up to tens of TeV and, indeed, are the strongest limits derived from Fermi LAT data at TeV energies. This is possible thanks to the new Fermi LAT IGRB measurement, which now extends up to an energy of 820 GeV. We also quantify uncertainties in detail and show the potential this type of search offers for testing the WIMP paradigm with a complementary and truly cosmological probe of DM particle signals.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
Fermi-LAT; Fermi LAT Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359; AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1221230
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1354915
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-15-052-A; arXiv eprint number arXiv:1501.05464
Journal Information:
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Vol. 2015, Issue 09; ISSN 1475-7516
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 77 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Isotropic extragalactic flux from dark matter annihilations: lessons from interacting dark matter scenarios text January 2016
A review of indirect searches for particle dark matter text January 2016
Top-philic Scalar Dark Matter with a Vector-like Fermionic Top Partner text January 2016
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