21,773 research outputs found
A "Baedecker" for the Dark Matter Annihilation Signal
We provide a ``Baedecker'' or travel guide to the directions on the sky where
the dark matter annihilation signal may be expected. We calculate the flux of
high energy gamma-rays from annihilation of neutralino dark matter in the
centre of the Milky Way and the three nearest dwarf spheroidals (Sagittarius,
Draco and Canis Major), using realistic models of the dark matter distribution.
Other investigators have used cusped dark halo profiles (such as the
Navarro-Frenk-White) to claim a significant signal. This ignores the
substantial astrophysical evidence that the Milky Way is not dark-matter
dominated in the inner regions. We show that the annihilation signal from the
Galactic Centre falls by two orders of magnitude on substituting a cored dark
matter density profile for a cusped one. The present and future generation of
high energy gamma-ray detectors, whether atmospheric Cerenkov telescopes or
space missions like GLAST, lack the sensitivity to detect any of the
monochromatic gamma-ray annihilation lines. The continuum gamma-ray signal
above 1 GeV and above 50 GeV may however be detectable either from the dwarf
spheroidals or from the Milky Way itself. If the density profiles of the dwarf
spheroidals are cusped, then the best prospects are for detecting Sagittarius
and Canis Major. However, if the dwarf spheroidals have milder, cored profiles,
then the annihilation signal is not detectable. For GLAST, an attractive
strategy is to exploit the wide field of view and observe the Milky Way at
medium latitudes, as suggested by Stoehr et al. This is reasonably robust
against changes in the density profile.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, version in press at The Physical Review
Floquet analysis of pulsed Dirac systems: A way to simulate rippled graphene
The low energy continuum limit of graphene is effectively known to be modeled
using Dirac equation in (2+1) dimensions. We consider the possibility of using
modulated high frequency periodic driving of a two-dimension system (optical
lattice) to simulate properties of rippled graphene. We suggest that the Dirac
Hamiltonian in a curved background space can also be effectively simulated by a
suitable driving scheme in optical lattice. The time dependent system yields,
in the approximate limit of high frequency pulsing, an effective time
independent Hamiltonian that governs the time evolution, except for an initial
and a final kick. We use a specific form of 4-phase pulsed forcing with
suitably tuned choice of modulating operators to mimic the effects of
curvature. The extent of curvature is found to be directly related to
the time period of the driving field at the leading order. We
apply the method to engineer the effects of curved background space. We find
that the imprint of curvilinear geometry modifies the electronic properties,
such as LDOS, significantly. We suggest that this method shall be useful in
studying the response of various properties of such systems to non-trivial
geometry without requiring any actual physical deformations.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Suggestions and comments are welcom
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