Constraints on dark matter annihilation from M87: Signatures of prompt and inverse-Compton gamma rays
arXiv:1111.3868 · doi:10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1815-y
Abstract
As the largest mass concentrations in the local Universe, nearby clusters of galaxies and their central galaxies are prime targets in searching for indirect signatures of dark matter annihilation (DMA). We seek to constrain the dark matter annihilation emission component from multi-frequency observations of the central galaxy of the Virgo cluster. The annihilation emission component is modeled by the prompt and inverse-Compton gamma rays from the hadronization of annihilation products from generic weakly interacting dark matter particles. This component is fitted to the excess of the observed data above the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the jet in M87, described with a best-fit synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) spectrum. While this result is not sufficiently significant to claim a detection, we emphasize that a dark matter "double hump signature" can be used to unambiguously discriminate the dark matter emission component from the variable jet-related emission of M87 in future, more extended observation campaigns.
5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJC
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Cited by in corpus (6)
- A review of indirect searches for particle dark matter
- The Positron Puzzle
- Ruling out thermal dark matter with a black hole induced spiky profile in the M87 galaxy
- Probing the central black hole in M87 with gamma-rays
- The complex gamma-ray behaviour of the Radio Galaxy M87
- Searching for dark matter annihilation from individual halos: uncertainties, scatter and signal-to-noise ratios