Model-independent dark matter annihilation bound from the diffuse gamma ray flux

An upper limit on the total annihilation cross section of dark matter (DM) has recently been derived from the observed atmospheric neutrino background. We show that comparable bounds are obtained for DM masses around the TeV scale by observations of the diffuse gamma-ray flux by EGRET, because electroweak bremsstrahlung leads to non-negligible electromagnetic branching ratios, even if DM particles only couple to neutrinos at tree level. A better mapping and the partial resolution of the diffuse gamma-ray background into astrophysical sources by the GLAST satellite will improve this bound in the near future.Comment: 4 pages revtex, 2 figures; minor changes, references added, conclusions unchanged; Matches published versio

The Galactic magnetic field as spectrograph for ultra-high energy cosmic rays

We study the influence of the regular component of the Galactic magnetic field (GMF) on the arrival directions of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). We find that, if the angular resolution of current experiments has to be fully exploited, deflections in the GMF cannot be neglected even for E=10^20 eV protons, especially for trajectories along the Galactic plane or crossing the Galactic center region. On the other hand, the GMF could be used as a spectrograph to discriminate among different source models and/or primaries of UHECRs, if its structure would be known with sufficient precision. We compare several GMF models introduced in the literature and discuss for the example of the AGASA data set how the significance of small-scale clustering or correlations with given astrophysical sources are affected by the GMF. We point out that the non-uniform exposure to the extragalactic sky induced by the GMF should be taken into account estimating the significance of potential (auto-)correlation signals.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; minor corrections, enlarged discussion, contains an extended review on Galactic magnetic field compared to published version, to appear in Astroparticle Physic

Anisotropic Cosmic Ray Diffusion and its Implications for Gamma-Ray Astronomy

Analyses of TeV-PeV cosmic ray (CR) diffusion around their sources usually assume either isotropic diffusion or anisotropic diffusion due to the regular Galactic magnetic field. We show that none of them are adequate on distances smaller than the maximal scale Lmax ~ 100 pc of fluctuations in the turbulent interstellar magnetic field. As a result, we predict anisotropic gamma-ray emissions around CR proton and electron sources, even for uniform densities of target gas. The centers of extended emission regions may have non-negligible offsets from their sources, leading to risks of misidentification. Gamma-rays from CR filaments have steeper energy spectra than those from surrounding regions. We point out that gamma-ray telescopes can be used in the future as a new way to probe and deduce the parameters of the interstellar magnetic field.Comment: 13 pages (2 columns), 9 figures. Published in Physical Review

Imprint of a 2 Myr old source on the cosmic ray anisotropy

We study numerically the anisotropy of the cosmic ray (CR) flux emitted by a single source calculating the trajectories of individual CRs. We show that the contribution of a single source to the observed anisotropy is instead determined solely by the fraction the source contributes to the total CR intensity, its age and its distance,and does not depend on the CR energy at late times. Therefore the observation of a constant dipole anisotropy indicates that a single source dominates the CR flux in the corresponding energy range. A natural explanation for the plateau between 2--20 TeV observed in the CR anisotropy is thus the presence of a single, nearby source. For the source age of 2 Myr, as suggested by the explanation of the antiproton and positron data from PAMELA and AMS-02 through a local source [arXiv:astro-ph/1504.06472], we determine the source distance as $\sim 200$ pc. Combined with the contribution of the global CR sea calculated in the escape model, we can explain qualitatively the data for the dipole anisotropy. Our results suggest that the assumption of a smooth CR source distribution should be abandoned between 200 GeV and 1 PeV.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures; v2: minor changes, to appear in ApJ

Unified model for cosmic rays above 101710^{17} eV and the diffuse gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds

We investigate how the extragalactic proton component derived within the "escape model" can be explained by astrophysical sources. We consider as possible cosmic ray (CR) sources normal/starburst galaxies and radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). We find that the contribution to the total extragalactic proton flux from normal and starburst galaxies is only subdominant and does not fit the spectral shape deduced in the escape model. In the case of radio-loud AGN, we show that the complete extragalactic proton spectrum can be explained by a single source population, BL Lac/FR I, for any of the potential acceleration sites in these sources. We calculate the diffuse neutrino and $\gamma$-ray fluxes produced by these CR protons interacting with gas inside their sources. For a spectral slope of CRs close to $\alpha=2.1-2.2$ as suggested by shock acceleration, we find that these UHECR sources contribute the dominant fraction of both the isotropic $\gamma$-ray background and of the extragalactic part of the astrophysical neutrino signal observed by IceCube.Comment: 10 pages, 9 eps figures; v2: minor additions, matches version to appear in PR

Clustering properties of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays and the search for their astrophysical sources

The arrival directions of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) may show anisotropies on all scales, from just above the experimental angular resolution up to medium scales and dipole anisotropies. We find that a global comparison of the two-point auto-correlation function of the data with the one of catalogues of potential sources is a powerful diagnostic tool. In particular, this method is far less sensitive to unknown deflections in magnetic fields than cross-correlation studies while keeping a strong discrimination power among source candidates. We illustrate these advantages by considering ordinary galaxies, gamma ray bursts and active galactic nuclei as possible sources. Already the sparse publicly available data suggest that the sources of UHECRs may be a strongly clustered sub-sample of galaxies or of active galactic nuclei. We present forecasts for various cases of source distributions which can be checked soon by the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; minor changes, matches published versio

Role of electroweak bremsstrahlung for indirect dark matter signatures

Interpretations of indirect searches for dark matter (DM) require theoretical predictions for the annihilation or decay rates of DM into stable particles of the standard model. These predictions include usually only final states accessible as lowest order tree-level processes, with electromagnetic bremsstrahlung and the loop-suppressed two gamma-ray line as exceptions. We show that this restriction may lead to severely biased results for DM tailored to produce only leptons in final states and with mass in the TeV range. For such models, unavoidable electroweak bremsstrahlung of Z and W-bosons has a significant influence both on the branching ratio and the spectral shape of the final state particles. We work out the consequences for two situations: First, the idealized case where DM annihilates at tree level with 100% branching ratio into neutrinos. For a given cross section, this leads eventually to “minimal yields” of photons, electrons, positrons, and antiprotons. Second, the case where the only allowed two-body final states are electrons. The latter case is typical of models aimed at fitting cosmic ray e- and e+ data. We find that the multimessenger signatures of such models can be significantly modified with respect to results presented in the literature