Intermediate Mass Black Holes and Nearby Dark Matter Point Sources: A Critical Reassessment

Abstract

The proposal of a galactic population of intermediate mass black holes (IMBHs), forming dark matter (DM) ``mini-spikes'' around them, has received considerable attention in recent years. In fact, leading in some scenarios to large annihilation fluxes in gamma rays, neutrinos and charged cosmic rays, these objects are sometimes quoted as one of the most promising targets for indirect DM searches. In this letter, we apply a detailed statistical analysis to point out that the existing EGRET data already place very stringent limits on those scenarios, making it rather unlikely that any of these objects will be observed with, e.g., the Fermi/GLAST satellite or upcoming Air Cherenkov telescopes. We also demonstrate that prospects for observing signals in neutrinos or charged cosmic rays seem even worse. Finally, we address the question of whether the excess in the cosmic ray positron/electron flux recently reported by PAMELA/ATIC could be due to a nearby DM point source like a DM clump or mini-spike; gamma-ray bounds, as well as the recently released Fermi cosmic ray electron and positron data, again exclude such a possibility for conventional DM candidates, and strongly constrain it for DM purely annihilating into light leptons.

4 pages revtex4, 4 figures. Improved analysis and discussion, added constraints from Fermi data, corrected figures and updated references

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• WIMPs and stellar-mass primordial black holes are incompatible
• Measuring the dark matter environments of black hole binaries with gravitational waves
• Gravitational wave probes of dark matter: challenges and opportunities
• Searches for Cosmic-Ray Electron Anisotropies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Relic density and CMB constraints on dark matter annihilation with Sommerfeld enhancement
• Extreme Dark Matter Tests with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals
• VERITAS Search for VHE Gamma-ray Emission from Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Primordial Black Holes as Silver Bullets for New Physics at the Weak Scale
• Origins of sharp cosmic-ray electron structures and the DAMPE excess
• Dark matter subhalos and unidentified sources in the Fermi 3FGL source catalog
• Shining Primordial Black Holes
• Cosmic ray electron anisotropies as a tool to discriminate between exotic and astrophysical sources
• Black Holes in our Galactic Halo: Compatibility with FGST and PAMELA Data and Constraints on the First Stars
• Coexistence Test of Primordial Black Holes and Particle Dark Matter from Diffractive Lensing
• No WIMP Mini-Spikes in Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Clumpiness enhancement of charged cosmic rays from dark matter annihilation with Sommerfeld effect
• Constraints on the Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation from the gamma rays of subhalos and dwarf galaxies
• Gamma-Ray Constraints on the First Stars from Annihilation of Light WIMPs
• Gamma rays from dark matter spikes in EAGLE simulations
• Dark Matter Annihilation and the PAMELA, FERMI and ATIC Anomalies
• Primordial Black Hole Mergers as Probes of Dark Matter in Galactic Center
• SZ effects from annihilating dark matter in the Milky Way: smooth halo, subhalos and intermediate-mass-black-holes
• Investigating the dark matter minispikes with the gamma-ray signal from the halo of M31