898 research outputs found
Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation in the Smith High-Velocity Cloud
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
gamma-ray observations from the Fermi Large Area Telescope to search for a dark
matter annihilation signal. No significant gamma-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 () for dark matter masses GeV annihilating via the or 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.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Published in Ap
Milky way satellite census. I. The observational selection function for milky way satellites in DES Y3 and pan-STARRS DR1
ArtÃculo escrito por un elevado número de autores, sólo se referencian el que aparece en primer lugar, los autores pertenecientes a la UAM y el nombre del grupo de colaboración, si lo hubiereWe report the results of a systematic search for ultra-faint Milky Way satellite galaxies using data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Pan-STARRS1 (PS1). Together, DES and PS1 provide multi-band photometry in optical/near-infrared wavelengths over ∼80% of the sky. Our search for satellite galaxies targets ∼25,000 deg2 of the high-Galactic-latitude sky reaching a 10σ point-source depth of ⪆22.5 mag in the g and r bands. While satellite galaxy searches have been performed independently on DES and PS1 before, this is the first time that a self-consistent search is performed across both data sets. We do not detect any new high-significance satellite galaxy candidates, recovering the majority of satellites previously detected in surveys of comparable depth. We characterize the sensitivity of our search using a large set of simulated satellites injected into the survey data. We use these simulations to derive both analytic and machine-learning models that accurately predict the detectability of Milky Way satellites as a function of their distance, size, luminosity, and location on the sky. To demonstrate the utility of this observational selection function, we calculate the luminosity function of Milky Way satellite galaxies, assuming that the known population of satellite galaxies is representative of the underlying distribution. We provide access to our observational selection function to facilitate comparisons with cosmological models of galaxy formation and evolutionThe DES data management system is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant Nos. AST-1138766 and AST1536171. The DES participants from Spanish institutions are partially supported by MINECO under grants AYA2015-71825,
ESP2015-66861, FPA2015-68048, SEV-2016-0588, SEV-2016-0597, and MDM-2015-0509, some of which include ERDF funds
from the European Union. IFAE is partially funded by the CERCA program of the Generalitat de Catalunya. Research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013), including ERC grant agreements 240672, 291329, and 306478. We acknowledge support from the Brazilian Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia (INCT) e-Universe (CNPq grant 465376/2014-2
Search for Gamma-ray Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation in the Large Magellanic Cloud with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
At a distance of 50 kpc and with a dark matter mass of
M, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a natural target for indirect
dark matter searches. We use five years of data from the Fermi Large Area
Telescope (LAT) and updated models of the gamma-ray emission from standard
astrophysical components to search for a dark matter annihilation signal from
the LMC. We perform a rotation curve analysis to determine the dark matter
distribution, setting a robust minimum on the amount of dark matter in the LMC,
which we use to set conservative bounds on the annihilation cross section. The
LMC emission is generally very well described by the standard astrophysical
sources, with at most a excess identified near the kinematic center
of the LMC once systematic uncertainties are taken into account. We place
competitive bounds on the dark matter annihilation cross section as a function
of dark matter particle mass and annihilation channel.Comment: 33 pages, 22 figures Version 2: minor corrections and clarifications
after journal peer review proces
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