Possible Evidence For Dark Matter Annihilation In The Inner Milky Way From The Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope

Abstract

We study the gamma rays observed by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope from the direction of the Galactic Center and find that their angular distribution and energy spectrum are well described by a dark matter annihilation scenario. In particular, we find a good fit to the data for dark matter particles with a 25-30 GeV mass, an annihilation cross section of ~9x10^-26 cm^3/s, and that are distributed with a cusped halo profile within the inner kiloparsec of the Galaxy. We cannot, however, exclude the possibility that these photons originate from an astrophysical source or sources with a similar morphology and spectral shape to those predicted in an annihilating dark matter scenario.

5 pages, 2 figures

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