Stringent Constraints On The Dark Matter Annihilation Cross Section From Subhalo Searches With The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope

Abstract

The dark matter halo of the Milky Way is predicted to contain a very large number of smaller subhalos. As a result of the dark matter annihilations taking place within such objects, the most nearby and massive subhalos could appear as point-like or spatially extended gamma-ray sources, without observable counterparts at other wavelengths. In this paper, we use the results of the Aquarius simulation to predict the distribution of nearby subhalos, and compare this to the characteristics of the unidentified gamma-ray sources observed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. Focusing on the brightest high latitude sources, we use this comparison to derive limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section. For dark matter particles lighter than ~200 GeV, the resulting limits are the strongest obtained to date, being modestly more stringent than those derived from observations of dwarf galaxies or the Galactic Center. We also derive independent limits based on the lack of unidentified gamma-ray sources with discernible spatial extension, but these limits are a factor of ~2-10 weaker than those based on point-like subhalos. Lastly, we note that four of the ten brightest high-latitude sources exhibit a similar spectral shape, consistent with 30-60 GeV dark matter particles annihilating to b quarks with an annihilation cross section on the order of sigma v ~ (5-10) x 10^-27 cm^3/s, or 8-10 GeV dark matter particles annihilating to taus with sigma v ~ (2.0-2.5) x 10^-27 cm^3/s.

14 pages, 10 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Dark Matter and Pulsar Model Constraints from Galactic Center Fermi-LAT Gamma Ray Observations
• New limits on dark matter annihilation from AMS cosmic ray positron data
• What mass are the smallest protohalos?
• The Dark Matter Annihilation Signal from Galactic Substructure: Predictions for GLAST
• Dark Matter Annihilation in Substructures Revised
• H.E.S.S. constraints on Dark Matter annihilations towards the Sculptor and Carina Dwarf Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (51)

• Astrophysical and Dark Matter Interpretations of Extended Gamma-Ray Emission from the Galactic Center
• Characterization of subhalo structural properties and implications for dark matter annihilation signals
• Limits on Dark Matter Annihilation Signals from the Fermi LAT 4-year Measurement of the Isotropic Gamma-Ray Background
• Sensitivity Projections for Dark Matter Searches with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• NLO+NLL Collider Bounds, Dirac Fermion and Scalar Dark Matter in the B-L Model
• On The Gamma-Ray Emission From Reticulum II and Other Dwarf Galaxies
• Gamma ray emission in Fermi bubbles and Higgs portal dark matter
• The Extragalactic Gamma-ray Sky in the Fermi era
• Examining The Fermi-LAT Third Source Catalog In Search Of Dark Matter Subhalos
• 3FGL Demographics Outside the Galactic Plane using Supervised Machine Learning: Pulsar and Dark Matter Subhalo Interpretations
• Search for Gamma-ray Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation in the Large Magellanic Cloud with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Optical Spectroscopic Observations of Gamma-ray Blazar Candidates. V. TNG, KPNO, and OAN Observations of Blazar Candidates of Uncertain Type in the Northern Hemisphere
• LHC constraints on light neutralino dark matter in the MSSM
• Dark matter substructure modelling and sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to Galactic dark halos
• Lepton-Flavored Dark Matter
• The Gamma-ray Blazar Quest: new optical spectra, state of art and future perspectives
• Collider and Dark Matter Searches in the Inert Doublet Model from Peccei-Quinn Symmetry
• Search for Gamma-ray Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation in the Small Magellanic Cloud with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Galactic Center gamma-ray excess from two-Higgs-doublet-portal dark matter
• Search for $\gamma$-ray emission from dark matter particle interactions from Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• Is The Gamma-Ray Source 3FGL J2212.5+0703 A Dark Matter Subhalo?
• Unidentified Gamma-ray Sources as Targets for Indirect Dark Matter Detection with the Fermi-Large Area Telescope
• Spectral and spatial analysis of the dark matter subhalo candidates among Fermi Large Area Telescope unidentified sources
• An optical overview of blazars with LAMOST I: Hunting changing-look blazars and new redshift estimates
• Dark matter subhalos and unidentified sources in the Fermi 3FGL source catalog
• Gamma Rays From Dark Matter Subhalos Revisited: Refining the Predictions and Constraints
• Optical spectroscopic observations of low-energy counterparts of Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources
• Light dark matter for Fermi-LAT and CDMS observations
• Improving the Sensitivity of Gamma-Ray Telescopes to Dark Matter Annihilation in Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Pushing down the low-mass halo concentration frontier with the Lomonosov cosmological simulations
• $\gamma$-ray and $\nu$ searches for dark matter subhalos in the Milky Way with a baryonic potential
• TeV Dark Matter Searches in the Extragalactic Gamma-Ray Sky
• Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to dark subhalos
• Gamma-ray sensitivity to dark matter subhalo modelling at high latitudes
• Search for dark matter annihilation signals from unidentified Fermi-LAT objects with H.E.S.S
• Prospects for Detecting Gamma Rays from Annihilating Dark Matter in Dwarf Galaxies in the Era of DES and LSST
• Constraints on the Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation from the gamma rays of subhalos and dwarf galaxies
• Testing the dark matter subhalo hypothesis of the gamma-ray source 3FGL J2212.5+0703
• Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and implications for WIMP constraints
• A Robust Method for Treating Astrophysical Mismodeling in Dark Matter Annihilation Searches of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• Harnessing the Population Statistics of Subhalos to Search for Annihilating Dark Matter
• Can galactic dark matter substructure contribute to the cosmic gamma-ray anisotropy?
• Search for line signal candidates in the Fermi-LAT data
• An observable electron-positron anisotropy cannot be generated by dark matter
• The viability of low-mass subhaloes as targets for gamma-ray dark matter searches
• The Dark Matter Contribution to Galactic Diffuse Gamma Ray Emission
• Resolving Dark Matter Subhalos With Future Sub-GeV Gamma-Ray Telescopes
• Dark Matter and Fundamental Physics Searches with IACTs
• Higgs, supersymmetry and dark matter after Run I of the LHC
• Gauge-covariant stochastic neural fields: Stability and finite-width effects
• Machine-Learned Dark Matter Subhalo Candidates in the 4FGL-DR2: Search for the Perturber of the GD-1 Stream