Astrophysical and Dark Matter Interpretations of Extended Gamma-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center

We construct empirical models of the diffuse gamma-ray background toward the Galactic Center. Including all known point sources and a template of emission associated with interactions of cosmic rays with molecular gas, we show that the extended emission observed previously in the Fermi Large Area Telescope data toward the Galactic Center is detected at high significance for all permutations of the diffuse model components. However, we find that the fluxes and spectra of the sources in our model change significantly depending on the background model. In particular, the spectrum of the central Sgr A$^\ast$ source is less steep than in previous works and the recovered spectrum of the extended emission has large systematic uncertainties, especially at lower energies. If the extended emission is interpreted to be due to dark matter annihilation, we find annihilation into pure $b$-quark and $\tau$-lepton channels to be statistically equivalent goodness of fits. In the case of the pure $b$-quark channel, we find a dark matter mass of $39.4\left(^{+3.7}_{-2.9}\rm\ stat.\right)\left(\pm 7.9\rm\ sys.\right)\rm\ GeV$, while a pure$\tau^{+} \tau^{-}$-channel case has an estimated dark matter mass of$9.43\left(^{+0.63}_{-0.52}\rm\ stat.\right)(\pm 1.2\rm\ sys.)\ GeV$. Alternatively, if the extended emission is interpreted to be astrophysical in origin such as due to unresolved millisecond pulsars, we obtain strong bounds on dark matter annihilation, although systematic uncertainties due to the dependence on the background models are significant.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures; v3: matches version in Phys. Rev.

Density profiles near nuclear surface of 44,52^{44,52}Ti: An indication of α\alpha clustering

We investigate the degree of $\alpha$ ($^4$He nucleus) clustering in the ground-state density profiles of $^{44}$Ti and $^{52}$Ti. Two types of density distributions, shell- and cluster-model configurations, are generated fully microscopically with the antisymmetrized quasi-cluster model, which can describe both the j-j coupling shell and $\alpha$-cluster configurations in a single scheme. Despite both the models reproducing measured charge radius data, we found that the $\alpha$ clustering significantly diffuses the density profiles near the nuclear surface compared to the ideal j-j coupling shell model configuration. The effect is most significant for $^{44}$Ti, while it is less for $^{52}$Ti due to the occupation of the $0f_{7/2}$ orbits in the $^{48}$Ca core. This difference can be detected by measuring proton-nucleus elastic scattering or the total reaction cross section on a carbon target at intermediate energies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Running with BICEP2: Implications for Small-Scale Problems in CDM

The BICEP2 results, when interpreted as a gravitational wave signal and combined with other CMB data, suggest a roll-off in power towards small scales in the primordial matter power spectrum. Among the simplest possibilities is a running of the spectral index. Here we show that the preferred level of running alleviates small-scale issues within the $\Lambda$CDM model, more so even than viable WDM models. We use cosmological zoom-in simulations of a Milky Way-size halo along with full-box simulations to compare predictions among four separate cosmologies: a BICEP2-inspired running index model ($\alpha_s$ = -0.024), two fixed-tilt $\Lambda$CDM models motivated by Planck, and a 2.6 keV thermal WDM model. We find that the running BICEP2 model reduces the central densities of large dwarf-size halos ($V_\mathrm{max}$ ~ 30 - 80 km s$^{-1}$) and alleviates the too-big-to-fail problem significantly compared to our adopted Planck and WDM cases. Further, the BICEP2 model suppresses the count of small subhalos by ~50% relative to Planck models, and yields a significantly lower "boost" factor for dark matter annihilation signals. Our findings highlight the need to understand the shape of the primordial power spectrum in order to correctly interpret small-scale data.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables, published in MNRA

Sterile neutrino dark matter bounds from galaxies of the Local Group

We show that the canonical oscillation-based (non-resonant) production of sterile neutrino dark matter is inconsistent at $>99$% confidence with observations of galaxies in the Local Group. We set lower limits on the non-resonant sterile neutrino mass of $2.5$ keV (equivalent to $0.7$ keV thermal mass) using phase-space densities derived for dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, as well as limits of $8.8$ keV (equivalent to $1.8$ keV thermal mass) based on subhalo counts of $N$-body simulations of M 31 analogues. Combined with improved upper mass limits derived from significantly deeper X-ray data of M 31 with full consideration for background variations, we show that there remains little room for non-resonant production if sterile neutrinos are to explain $100$% of the dark matter abundance. Resonant and non-oscillation sterile neutrino production remain viable mechanisms for generating sufficient dark matter sterile neutrinos.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to PR

Hepatitis C Virus, Splenic Vein Thrombosis, and Lymphoma

ArticleCLINICAL GASTROENTEROLOGY AND HEPATOLOGY 7(2): 24(2009)journal articl