Constraining Galactic dark matter with gamma-ray pixel counts statistics

Gamma-ray searches for new physics such as dark matter are often driven by investigating the composition of the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGB). Classic approaches to EGB decomposition manifest in resolving individual point sources and dissecting the intensity spectrum of the remaining unresolved component. Furthermore, statistical methods have recently been proven to outperform the sensitivity of classic source detection algorithms in finding point-source populations in the unresolved flux regime. In this article, we employ the 1-point photon count statistics of eight years of Fermi-LAT data to resolve the population of extragalactic point sources and to decompose the diffuse isotropic background contribution for Galactic latitudes |b|>30 deg. We use three adjacent energy bins between 1 and 10 GeV. For the first time, we extend the analysis to incorporate a potential contribution from annihilating dark matter smoothly distributed in the Galaxy. We investigate the sensitivity reach of 1-point statistics for constraining the thermally-averaged self-annihilation cross section of dark matter, using different template models for the Galactic foreground emission. Given the official Fermi-LAT interstellar emission model, we set upper bounds on the DM self-annihilation cross section that are comparable with the constraints obtained by other indirect detection methods, in particular by the stacking analysis of several dwarf spheroidal galaxies.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; v2: major changes improving the selection of the RO

Relic neutralinos and the two dark matter candidate events of the CDMS II experiment

The CDMS Collaboration has presented its results for the final exposure of the CDMS II experiment and reports that two candidate events for dark matter would survive after application of the various discrimination and subtraction procedures inherent in their analysis. We show that a population of relic neutralinos, which was already proved to fit the DAMA/LIBRA data on the annual modulation effect, could naturally explain the two candidate CDMS II events, if these are actually due to a dark matter signal.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure

Search for the SM Higgs boson decaying to b quarks with CMS experiment

A search for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks pairs is presented. Two production channels have been analyzed: vector-boson fusion and associated production with a vector boson decaying to leptons. The search is performed on data collected with the CMS detector at LHC during 2011 and 2012, at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of about 5.0 fb−1 and 19.0 fb−1, respectively. A 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.79 (0.89) times SM Higgs boson cross section has been observed (expected) at a Higgs boson mass of 125GeV. An excess of events is observed above the expected background with a local significance of 2.2 standard deviations, which is consistent with the expectation from the production of the SM Higgs boson. The signal strength corresponding to this excess, relative to that of the SM Higgs boson, is 0.97 ± 0.48

Upper bounds on signals due to WIMP self--annihilation: comments on the case of the synchrotron radiation from the galactic center and the WMAP haze

Two recent papers reconsider the possibility that the excess of microwave emission from a region within $\sim 20^0$ of the galactic center (the {\it WMAP haze}), measured by WMAP, can be due to the synchrotron emission originated by neutralino self-annihilation; on the basis of this possible occurrence, also upper bounds on the neutralino self-annihilation cross--section are suggested. In the present note, we show that in the common case of thermal WIMPs in a standard cosmological model, when the rescaling of the galactic WIMP density is duly taken into account for subdominant WIMPs, the upper bound applicable generically to {\it any} signal due to self-conjugate WIMPs is more stringent than the ones obtained from analysis of the WMAP haze. We also argue that an experimental upper bound, which can compete with our generic upper limit, can rather be derived from measurements of cosmic antiproton fluxes, for some values of the parameters of the astrophysical propagation model. Finally, we comment on the possible impact of our generic upper bound on the interpretation of the WMAP haze in terms of thermal neutralinos in a standard cosmological scheme.Comment: 3 pages, comments and 1 figure adde

Analytical results for long time behavior in anomalous diffusion

We investigate through a Generalized Langevin formalism the phenomenon of anomalous diffusion for asymptotic times, and we generalized the concept of the diffusion exponent. A method is proposed to obtain the diffusion coefficient analytically through the introduction of a time scaling factor $\lambda$. We obtain as well an exact expression for $\lambda$ for all kinds of diffusion. Moreover, we show that $\lambda$ is a universal parameter determined by the diffusion exponent. The results are then compared with numerical calculations and very good agreement is observed. The method is general and may be applied to many types of stochastic problem

Editorial for the special issue on nanostructure based sensors for gas sensing: From devices to systems

The development of solid state gas sensors based on microtransducers and nanostructured sensing materials is the key point in the design of new portable measurement systems with sensing and identification performances comparable with those of most sophisticated analytical techniques. In such a context, a lot of effort must be spent of course in the development of the sensing material, but also in the choice of the transducer mechanism and structure, in the electrical characterization of the sensor prototypes, as well as in the design of suitable measurement setups. [...]