404 research outputs found
Searching for Dark Matter with X-ray Observations of Local Dwarf Galaxies
A generic feature of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter
models is the emission of photons over a broad energy band resulting from the
stable yields of dark matter pair annihilation. Inverse Compton scattering off
cosmic microwave background photons of energetic electrons and positrons
produced in dark matter annihilation is expected to produce significant diffuse
X-ray emission. Dwarf galaxies are ideal targets for this type of dark matter
search technique, being nearby, dark matter dominated systems free of any
astrophysical diffuse X-ray background. In this paper, we present the first
systematic study of X-ray observations of local dwarf galaxies aimed at the
search for WIMP dark matter. We outline the optimal energy and angular ranges
for current telescopes, and analyze the systematic uncertainties connected to
electron/positron diffusion. We do not observe any significant X-ray excess,
and translate this null result into limits on the mass and pair annihilation
cross section for particle dark matter. Our results indicate that X-ray
observations of dwarf galaxies currently constrain dark matter models at the
same level or even more strongly than gamma-ray observations of the same
systems, although at the expenses of introducing additional assumptions and
related uncertainties in the modeling of diffusion and energy loss processes.
The limits we find constrain portions of the supersymmetric parameter space,
particularly if the effect of dark matter substructures is included. Finally,
we comment on the role of future X-ray satellites (e.g. Constellation-X, XEUS)
and on their complementarity with GLAST and other gamma-ray telescopes in the
quest for particle dark matter.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in Ap
Typing Supernova Remnants Using X-ray Line Emission Morphologies
We present a new observational method to type the explosions of young
supernova remnants (SNRs). By measuring the morphology of the Chandra X-ray
line emission in seventeen Galactic and Large Magellanic Cloud SNRs with a
multipole expansion analysis (using power ratios), we find that the
core-collapse SNRs are statistically more asymmetric than the Type Ia SNRs. We
show that the two classes of supernovae can be separated naturally using this
technique because X-ray line morphologies reflect the distinct explosion
mechanisms and structure of the circumstellar material. These findings are
consistent with recent spectropolarimetry results showing that core-collapse
SNe are intrinsically more asymmetric.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in ApJ
Tools for Dissecting Supernova Remnants Observed with Chandra: Methods and Application to the Galactic Remnant W49B
We introduce methods to quantify the X-ray morphologies of supernova remnants
observed with the Chandra X-ray Telescope. These include a power-ratio
technique to measure morphological asymmetries, correlation-length analysis to
probe chemical segregation and distribution, and wavelet-transform analysis to
quantify X-ray substructure. We demonstrate the utility and accuracy of these
techniques on relevant synthetic data. Additionally, we show the methods'
capabilities by applying them to the 55-ks Chandra ACIS observation of the
galactic supernova remnant W49B. We analyze the images of prominent emission
lines in W49B and use the results to discern physical properties. We find that
the iron morphology is very distinct from the other elements: it is
statistically more asymmetric, more segregated, and has 25% larger emitting
substructures than the lighter ions. Comparatively, the silicon, sulfur, argon,
and calcium are well-mixed, more isotropic, and have smaller, equally-sized
emitting substructures. Based on fits of XMM-Newton spectra in regions
identified as iron rich and iron poor, we determine that the iron in W49B must
have been anisotropically ejected. We measure the abundance ratios in many
regions, and we find that large, local variations are persistent throughout the
remnant. We compare the mean, global abundance ratios to those predicted by
spherical and bipolar core-collapse explosions; the results are consistent with
a bipolar origin from a 25 solar mass progenitor. We calculate the filling
factor of iron from the volume of its emitting substructures, enabling more
precise mass estimates than previous studies. Overall, this work is a first
step toward rigorously describing the physical properties of supernova remnants
for comparison within and between sources.Comment: 51 pages, 24 figures, accepted by ApJ. For full resolution figures,
see http://www.astro.ucsc.edu/~lopez/paper.html Fixed typo in URL; no other
change
Evidence for Non-Hydrostatic Gas from the Cluster X-ray to Lensing Mass Ratio
Using a uniform analysis procedure, we measure spatially resolved weak
gravitational lensing and hydrostatic X-ray masses for a sample of 18 clusters
of galaxies. We find a radial trend in the X-ray to lensing mass ratio: at
r2500 we obtain a ratio MX/ML=1.03+/-0.07 which decreases to MX/ML=0.78+/-0.09
at r500. This difference is significant at 3 sigma once we account for
correlations between the measurements. We show that correcting the lensing mass
for excess correlated structure outside the virial radius slightly reduces, but
does not eliminate this trend. An X-ray mass underestimate, perhaps due to
nonthermal pressure support, can explain the residual trend. The trend is not
correlated with the presence or absence of a cool core. We also examine the
cluster gas fraction and find no correlation with ML, an important result for
techniques that aim to determine cosmological parameters using the gas
fraction.Comment: 8 pages, minor modifications, accepted for publication in MNRA
Gamma Rays from Clusters and Groups of Galaxies: Cosmic Rays versus Dark Matter
Clusters of galaxies have not yet been detected at gamma-ray frequencies;
however, the recently launched Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, formerly known
as GLAST, could provide the first detections in the near future. Clusters are
expected to emit gamma rays as a result of (1) a population of high-energy
primary and re-accelerated secondary cosmic rays (CR) fueled by structure
formation and merger shocks, active galactic nuclei and supernovae, and (2)
particle dark matter (DM) annihilation. In this paper, we ask the question of
whether the Fermi telescope will be able to discriminate between the two
emission processes. We present data-driven predictions for a large X-ray flux
limited sample of galaxy clusters and groups. We point out that the gamma ray
signals from CR and DM can be comparable. In particular, we find that poor
clusters and groups are the systems predicted to have the highest DM to CR
emission at gamma-ray energies. Based on detailed Fermi simulations, we study
observational handles that might enable us to distinguish the two emission
mechanisms, including the gamma-ray spectra, the spatial distribution of the
signal and the associated multi-wavelength emissions. We also propose optimal
hardness ratios, which will help to understand the nature of the gamma-ray
emission. Our study indicates that gamma rays from DM annihilation with a high
particle mass can be distinguished from a CR spectrum even for fairly faint
sources. Discriminating a CR spectrum from a light DM particle will be instead
much more difficult, and will require long observations and/or a bright source.
While the gamma-ray emission from our simulated clusters is extended,
determining the spatial distribution with Fermi will be a challenging task
requiring an optimal control of the backgrounds.Comment: revised to match resubmitted version, 35 pages, 16 figures: results
unchanged, some discussion added and unnecessary text and figures remove
The Isotropic Radio Background and Annihilating Dark Matter
Observations by ARCADE-2 and other telescopes sensitive to low frequency
radiation have revealed the presence of an isotropic radio background with a
hard spectral index. The intensity of this observed background is found to
exceed the flux predicted from astrophysical sources by a factor of
approximately 5-6. In this article, we consider the possibility that
annihilating dark matter particles provide the primary contribution to the
observed isotropic radio background through the emission of synchrotron
radiation from electron and positron annihilation products. For reasonable
estimates of the magnetic fields present in clusters and galaxies, we find that
dark matter could potentially account for the observed radio excess, but only
if it annihilates mostly to electrons and/or muons, and only if it possesses a
mass in the range of approximately 5-50 GeV. For such models, the annihilation
cross section required to normalize the synchrotron signal to the observed
excess is sigma v ~ (0.4-30) x 10^-26 cm^3/s, similar to the value predicted
for a simple thermal relic (sigma v ~ 3 x 10^-26 cm^3/s). We find that in any
scenario in which dark matter annihilations are responsible for the observed
excess radio emission, a significant fraction of the isotropic gamma ray
background observed by Fermi must result from dark matter as well.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
The Evolution of Galaxies in X-ray Luminous Groups
We investigate the galaxy populations in seven X-ray selected,
intermediate-redshift groups (0.2<z<0.6). Overall, the galaxy populations in
these systems are similar to those in clusters at the same redshift; they have
large fractions of early-type galaxies (f_e~70%) and small fractions of
galaxies with significant star formation (f_[OII]~30%). We do not observe a
strong evolution in the galaxy populations from those seen in X-ray luminous
groups at low-redshift. Both f_e and f_[OII] are correlated with radius but do
not reach the field value out to ~r_500. However, we find significant variation
in the galaxy populations between groups with some groups having field-like
populations. Comparisons between the morphological and spectral properties of
group galaxies reveal both gas-poor mergers and a population of passive
spirals. Unlike low-redshift, X-ray emitting groups, in some of these groups
the brightest galaxy does not lie at the center of the X-ray emission, and in
several of the groups that do have a central BGG, the BGG has multiple
components. These groups appear to represent a range of evolutionary stages in
the formation of the BGG. Some groups have relatively large central galaxy
densities, and one group contains a string of seven bright galaxies within a
radius of 200 kpc that have a lower velocity dispersion than the rest of the
system. None of the central galaxies, including those with multiple components,
have significant [OII] emission. These observations support a scenario in which
BGGs are formed relatively late through gas-poor mergers.Comment: 50 pages, 8 figures, minor revisons to make consistent with published
version, for version with full resolution figures, see
http://www.ociw.edu/~tesla/groups.ps.g
Modelling galaxy cluster triaxiality in stacked cluster weak lensing analyses
Counts of galaxy clusters offer a high-precision probe of cosmology, but control of systematic errors will determine the accuracy of this measurement. Using Buzzard simulations, we quantify one such systematic, the triaxiality distribution of clusters identified with the redMaPPer optical cluster finding algorithm, which was used in the Dark Energy Survey Year-1 (DES Y1) cluster cosmology analysis. We test whether redMaPPer selection biases the clusters’ shape and orientation and find that it only biases orientation, preferentially selecting clusters with their major axes oriented along the line of sight. Modelling the richness–mass relation as log-linear, we find that the log-richness amplitude ln (A) is boosted from the lowest to highest orientation bin with a significance of 14σ, while the orientation dependence of the richness-mass slope and intrinsic scatter is minimal. We also find that the weak lensing shear-profile ratios of cluster-associated dark haloes in different orientation bins resemble a ‘bottleneck’ shape that can be quantified with a Cauchy function. We test the correlation of orientation with two other leading systematics in cluster cosmology – miscentering and projection – and find a null correlation. The resulting mass bias predicted from our templates confirms the DES Y1 finding that triaxiality is a leading source of bias in cluster cosmology. However, the richness-dependence of the bias confirms that triaxiality does not fully resolve the tension at low-richness between DES Y1 cluster cosmology and other probes. Our model can be used for quantifying the impact of triaxiality bias on cosmological constraints for upcoming weak lensing surveys of galaxy clusters
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