On the Relevance of Sharp Gamma-Ray Features for Indirect Dark Matter Searches

Abstract

Gamma rays from the annihilation of dark matter particles in the Galactic halo provide a particularly promising means of indirectly detecting dark matter. Here, we demonstrate that pronounced spectral features at energies near the dark matter particles' mass, which are a generic prediction for most models, can significantly improve the sensitivity of gamma-ray telescopes to dark matter signals. We derive projected limits on such features (including the traditionally looked-for line signals) and show that they can be much more efficient in constraining the nature of dark matter than the model-independent broad spectral features expected at lower energies.

7 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, extended version as published in PRD

References in corpus (13)

• Measurement of the Cosmic Ray e+ plus e- spectrum from 20 GeV to 1 TeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Observations of the Crab Nebula with H.E.S.S
• VHE Gamma-Ray Observation of the Crab Nebula and its Pulsar with the MAGIC telescope
• Search for a Dark Matter annihilation signal from the Galactic Center halo with H.E.S.S
• Significant Gamma Lines from Inert Higgs Dark Matter
• New Gamma-Ray Contributions to Supersymmetric Dark Matter Annihilation
• Fermi LAT Search for Photon Lines from 30 to 200 GeV and Dark Matter Implications
• Baryonic Pinching of Galactic Dark Matter Halos
• Conservative Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation into Gamma Rays
• Hunting Dark Matter Gamma-Ray Lines with the Fermi LAT
• Complementarity of direct dark matter detection and indirect detection through gamma-rays
• Search with EGRET for a Gamma Ray Line from the Galactic Center
• Optimal angular window for observing Dark Matter annihilation from the Galactic Center region: the case of gamma-ray lines

Cited by in corpus (52)

• A Tentative Gamma-Ray Line from Dark Matter Annihilation at the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• The DArk Matter Particle Explorer mission
• Fermi LAT Search for Internal Bremsstrahlung Signatures from Dark Matter Annihilation
• A Tale of Tails: Dark Matter Interpretations of the Fermi GeV Excess in Light of Background Model Systematics
• New limits on dark matter annihilation from AMS cosmic ray positron data
• Improved constraints on the primordial power spectrum at small scales from ultracompact minihalos
• Wino Dark Matter Under Siege
• Dark Matter Evidence, Particle Physics Candidates and Detection Methods
• A Comprehensive Search for Dark Matter Annihilation in Dwarf Galaxies
• Dark Matter and Fundamental Physics with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Fermi 130 GeV gamma-ray excess and dark matter annihilation in sub-haloes and in the Galactic centre
• The Galactic Center GeV Excess from a Series of Leptonic Cosmic-Ray Outbursts
• Probing Dark Matter Decay and Annihilation with Fermi LAT Observations of Nearby Galaxy Clusters
• Updated cosmic-ray and radio constraints on light dark matter: Implications for the GeV gamma-ray excess at the Galactic center
• Signatures of Majorana dark matter with t-channel mediators
• Search for Dark Matter Annihilation Signals from the Fornax Galaxy Cluster with H.E.S.S
• Majorana Dark Matter with a Coloured Mediator: Collider vs Direct and Indirect Searches
• What if Dark Matter Gamma-Ray Lines come with Gluon Lines?
• Investigating Gamma-Ray Lines from Dark Matter with Future Observatories
• Dark matter annihilations into two light fermions and one gauge boson: general analysis and antiproton constraints
• Internal bremsstrahlung signatures in light of direct dark matter searches
• A 130 GeV photon line from dark matter annihilation in the NMSSM
• The CTA aims at the Inert Doublet Model
• Searching for Secluded Dark Matter with H.E.S.S., Fermi-LAT, and Planck
• Sensitivity of CTA to dark matter signals from the Galactic Center
• Perspective of monochromatic gamma-ray line detection with the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) facility onboard China's Space Station
• Closing in on mass-degenerate dark matter scenarios with antiprotons and direct detection
• Search for right-handed neutrinos from dark matter annihilation with gamma-rays
• On the sensitivity of CTA to gamma-ray boxes from multi-TeV dark matter
• Fermi-LAT gamma-ray signal from Earth Limb, systematic detector effects and their implications for the 130 GeV gamma-ray excess
• Extending Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. Limits on Gamma-ray Lines from Dark Matter Annihilation
• Gamma-ray Limits on Neutrino Lines
• Significant Enhancement of Neutralino Dark Matter Annihilation from Electroweak Bremsstrahlung
• Study of the Gamma-ray Spectrum from the Galactic Center in view of Multi-TeV Dark Matter Candidates
• Effective Theory of Dark Matter Decay into Monochromatic Photons and its Implications: Constraints from Associated Cosmic-Ray Emission
• The 130 GeV gamma-ray line and generic dark matter model building constraints from continuum gamma rays, radio and antiproton data
• Enhanced Line Signals from Annihilating Kaluza-Klein Dark Matter
• Dark Matter Line Searches with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Lower Limits on the Strengths of Gamma Ray Lines from WIMP Dark Matter Annihilation
• Gamma-ray triangles: a possible signature of asymmetric dark matter in indirect searches
• Disentangling cosmic-ray and dark-matter induced gamma-rays in galaxy clusters?
• A Clustering Analysis of the Morphology of the 130 GeV Gamma-Ray Feature
• Gamma-ray and Synchrotron Radiation from Dark Matter annihilations in Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies
• A possible blazar spectral irregularity case caused by photon--axionlike-particle oscillations
• A sensitive search for unknown spectral emission lines in the diffuse X-ray background with XMM-Newton
• Enhanced lines and box-shaped features in the gamma-ray spectrum from annihilating dark matter in the NMSSM
• Super-exponential cutoff as a probe of annihilating dark matter
• Saas-Fee Lecture Notes: Multi-messenger Astronomy and Dark Matter
• t-channel dark matter at the LHC -- a whitepaper
• The gamma-ray spectral feature from Kaluza-Klein dark matter annihilation and its observability
• Spectral cutoffs in indirect dark matter searches
• Constraining Gamma-ray Lines from Dark Matter Annihilation using Fermi-LAT and H.E.S.S. data