627 research outputs found
Source population synthesis and the Galactic diffuse gamma-ray emission
Population synthesis is used to study the contribution from undetected
sources to the Galactic ridge emission measured by EGRET. Synthesized source
counts are compared with the 3rd EGRET catalogue at low and high latitudes. For
pulsar-like populations, 5-10% of the emission >100 MeV comes from sources
below the EGRET threshold. A steeper luminosity function can increase this to
20% without violating EGRET source statistics. Less luminous populations can
produce much higher values without being detected. Since the unresolved source
spectrum is different from the interstellar spectrum, it could provide an
explanation of the observed MeV and GeV excesses above the predictions, and we
give an explicit example of how this could work.Comment: Astrophysics and Space Science, in press. (Proceedings of Conference
'The multi-messenger approach to high-energy gamma-ray sources', Barcelona,
2006). Minor changes for accepted version, updated reference
Models for Galactic cosmic-ray propagation
A new numerical model of particle propagation in the Galaxy has been
developed, which allows the study of cosmic-ray and gamma-ray production and
propagation in 2D or 3D, including a full reaction network. This is a further
development of the code which has been used for studies of cosmic ray
reacceleration, Galactic halo size, antiprotons and positrons in cosmic rays,
the interpretation of diffuse continuum gamma rays, and dark matter. In this
paper we illustrate recent results focussing on B/C, sub-Fe/Fe, ACE radioactive
isotope data, source abundances and antiprotons. From the radioactive nuclei we
derive a range of 3-7 kpc for the height of the cosmic-ray halo.Comment: Invited talk at the 33rd COSPAR Scientific Assembly (Warsaw 2000); 10
pages including 10 ps-figures and 2 tables, latex2e, uses cospar.sty. To
appear in Advances in Space Research 2001. More details can be found at
http://www.gamma.mpe-garching.mpg.de/~aws/aws.htm
GALPROP WebRun: an internet-based service for calculating galactic cosmic ray propagation and associated photon emissions
GALPROP is a numerical code for calculating the galactic propagation of
relativistic charged particles and the diffuse emissions produced during their
propagation. The code incorporates as much realistic astrophysical input as
possible together with latest theoretical developments and has become a de
facto standard in astrophysics of cosmic rays. We present GALPROP WebRun, a
service to the scientific community enabling easy use of the freely available
GALPROP code via web browsers. In addition, we introduce the latest GALPROP
version 54, available through this service.Comment: Accepted for publication in Computer Physics Communications. Version
2 includes improvements suggested by the referee. Metadata completed in
version 3 (no changes to the manuscript
Gamma rays from the annihilation of singlet scalar dark matter
We consider an extension of the Standard Model by a singlet scalar that
accounts for the dark matter of the Universe. Within this model we compute the
expected gamma ray flux from the annihilation of dark matter particles in a
consistent way. To do so, an updated analysis of the parameter space of the
model is first presented. By enforcing the relic density constraint from the
very beginning, the viable parameter space gets reduced to just two variables:
the singlet mass and the higgs mass. Current direct detection constraints are
then found to require a singlet mass larger than 50 GeV. Finally, we compute
the gamma ray flux and annihilation cross section and show that a large
fraction of the viable parameter space lies within the sensitivity of
Fermi-GLAST.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures. v2: minor modifications to text and figures;
main results unchanged. v3: some references adde
Systematic effects in the extraction of the 'WMAP haze'
The extraction of a 'haze' from the WMAP microwave skymaps is based on
subtraction of known foregrounds, viz. free-free (bremsstrahlung), thermal dust
and synchrotron, each traced by other skymaps. While the 408 MHz all-sky survey
is used for the synchrotron template, the WMAP bands are at tens of GHz where
the spatial distribution of the radiating cosmic ray electrons ought to be
quite different because of the energy-dependence of their diffusion in the
Galaxy. The systematic uncertainty this introduces in the residual skymap is
comparable to the claimed haze and can, for certain source distributions, have
a very similar spectrum and latitudinal profile and even a somewhat similar
morphology. Hence caution must be exercised in interpreting the 'haze' as a
physical signature of, e.g., dark matter annihilation in the Galactic centre.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures; improved diffusion model; extended discussion
of spectral index maps; clarifying comments, figures and references added; to
appear in JCA
Galactic-Centre Gamma Rays in CMSSM Dark Matter Scenarios
We study the production of gamma rays via LSP annihilations in the core of
the Galaxy as a possible experimental signature of the constrained minimal
supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM), in which
supersymmetry-breaking parameters are assumed to be universal at the GUT scale,
assuming also that the LSP is the lightest neutralino chi. The part of the
CMSSM parameter space that is compatible with the measured astrophysical
density of cold dark matter is known to include a stau_1 - chi coannihilation
strip, a focus-point strip where chi has an enhanced Higgsino component, and a
funnel at large tanb where the annihilation rate is enhanced by the poles of
nearby heavy MSSM Higgs bosons, A/H. We calculate the total annihilation rates,
the fractions of annihilations into different Standard Model final states and
the resulting fluxes of gamma rays for CMSSM scenarios along these strips. We
observe that typical annihilation rates are much smaller in the coannihilation
strip for tanb = 10 than along the focus-point strip or for tanb = 55, and that
the annihilation branching ratios differ greatly between the different dark
matter strips. Whereas the current Fermi-LAT data are not sensitive to any of
the CMSSM scenarios studied, and the calculated gamma-ray fluxes are probably
unobservably low along the coannihilation strip for tanb = 10, we find that
substantial portions of the focus-point strips and rapid-annihilation funnel
regions could be pressured by several more years of Fermi-LAT data, if
understanding of the astrophysical background and/or systematic uncertainties
can be improved in parallel.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures, comments and references added, version to
appear in JCA
Cosmic positron and antiproton constraints on the gauge-Higgs Dark Matter
We calculate the cosmic ray positron and antiproton spectra of a gauge-Higgs
dark matter candidate in a warped five-dimensional
gauge-Higgs unification model. The stability of the gauge-Higgs boson is
guaranteed by the H parity under which only the Higgs boson is odd at low
energy. The 4-point vertices of HHW^+W^- and HHZZ, allowed by H parity
conservation, have the same magnitude as in the standard model, which yields
efficient annihilation rate for . The most dominant annihilation
channel is followed by the subsequent decays of the
bosons into positrons or quarks, which undergo fragmentation into antiproton.
Comparing with the observed positron and antiproton spectra with the PAMALA and
Fermi/LAT, we found that the Higgs boson mass cannot be larger than 90 GeV, in
order not to overrun the observations. Together with the constraint on not
overclosing the Universe, the valid range of the dark matter mass is restricted
to 70-90 GeV.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
A New Approach to Searching for Dark Matter Signals in Fermi-LAT Gamma Rays
Several cosmic ray experiments have measured excesses in electrons and
positrons, relative to standard backgrounds, for energies from ~ 10 GeV - 1
TeV. These excesses could be due to new astrophysical sources, but an
explanation in which the electrons and positrons are dark matter annihilation
or decay products is also consistent. Fortunately, the Fermi-LAT diffuse gamma
ray measurements can further test these models, since the electrons and
positrons produce gamma rays in their interactions in the interstellar medium.
Although the dark matter gamma ray signal consistent with the local electron
and positron measurements should be quite large, as we review, there are
substantial uncertainties in the modeling of diffuse backgrounds and,
additionally, experimental uncertainties that make it difficult to claim a dark
matter discovery. In this paper, we introduce an alternative method for
understanding the diffuse gamma ray spectrum in which we take the intensity
ratio in each energy bin of two different regions of the sky, thereby canceling
common systematic uncertainties. For many spectra, this ratio fits well to a
power law with a single break in energy. The two measured exponent indices are
a robust discriminant between candidate models, and we demonstrate that dark
matter annihilation scenarios can predict index values that require "extreme"
parameters for background-only explanations.Comment: v1: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, revtex4; v2: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1
table, revtex4, Figure 4 added, minor additions made to text, references
added, conclusions unchanged, published versio
Implications of the Fermi-LAT diffuse gamma-ray measurements on annihilating or decaying Dark Matter
We analyze the recently published Fermi-LAT diffuse gamma-ray measurements in
the context of leptonically annihilating or decaying dark matter (DM) with the
aim to explain simultaneously the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray and the PAMELA,
Fermi and HESS (PFH) anomalous data. Five different DM
annihilation/decay channels , , , , or (the latter
two via an intermediate light particle ) are generated with PYTHIA. We
calculate both the Galactic and extragalactic prompt and inverse Compton (IC)
contributions to the resulting gamma-ray spectra. To find the Galactic IC
spectra we use the interstellar radiation field model from the latest release
of GALPROP. For the extragalactic signal we show that the amplitude of the
prompt gamma-emission is very sensitive to the assumed model for the
extragalactic background light. For our Galaxy we use the Einasto, NFW and
Isothermal DM density profiles and include the effects of DM substructure
assuming a simple subhalo model. Our calculations show that for the
annihilating DM the extragalactic gamma-ray signal can dominate only if rather
extreme power-law concentration-mass relation is used, while more
realistic relations make the extragalactic component comparable or
subdominant to the Galactic signal. For the decaying DM the Galactic signal
always exceeds the extragalactic one. In the case of annihilating DM the PFH
favored parameters can be ruled out only if power-law relation is
assumed. For DM decaying into or the PFH favored DM parameters
are not in conflict with the Fermi gamma-ray data. We find that, due to the
(almost) featureless Galactic IC spectrum and the DM halo substructure,
annihilating DM may give a good simultaneous fit to the isotropic diffuse
gamma-ray and to the PFH data without being in clear conflict with the
other Fermi-LAT gamma-ray measurements.Comment: Accepted for publication in JCAP, added missing references, new Figs.
9 \& 10, 35 page
Particle Acceleration in Cosmic Sites - Astrophysics Issues in our Understanding of Cosmic Rays
Laboratory experiments to explore plasma conditions and stimulated particle
acceleration can illuminate aspects of the cosmic particle acceleration
process. Here we discuss the cosmic-ray candidate source object variety, and
what has been learned about their particle-acceleration characteristics. We
identify open issues as discussed among astrophysicists. -- The cosmic ray
differential intensity spectrum is a rather smooth power-law spectrum, with two
kinks at the "knee" (~10^15 eV) and at the "ankle" (~3 10^18 eV). It is unclear
if these kinks are related to boundaries between different dominating sources,
or rather related to characteristics of cosmic-ray propagation. We believe that
Galactic sources dominate up to 10^17 eV or even above, and the extragalactic
origin of cosmic rays at highest energies merges rather smoothly with Galactic
contributions throughout the 10^15--10^18 eV range. Pulsars and supernova
remnants are among the prime candidates for Galactic cosmic-ray production,
while nuclei of active galaxies are considered best candidates to produce
ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays of extragalactic origin. Acceleration processes
are related to shocks from violent ejections of matter from energetic sources
such as supernova explosions or matter accretion onto black holes. Details of
such acceleration are difficult, as relativistic particles modify the structure
of the shock, and simple approximations or perturbation calculations are
unsatisfactory. This is where laboratory plasma experiments are expected to
contribute, to enlighten the non-linear processes which occur under such
conditions.Comment: accepted for publication in EPJD, topical issue on Fundamental
physics and ultra-high laser fields. From review talk at "Extreme Light
Infrastructure" workshop, Sep 2008. Version-2 May 2009: adjust some wordings
and references at EPJD proofs stag
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