Are we really seeing dark matter signals from the Milky Way center?

Abstract

The center of the Milky Way is one of the most interesting regions of the $\gamma$-ray sky because of the potential for indirect dark matter (DM) detection. It is also complicated due to the many sources and uncertainties associated with the diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission. Many independent groups have claimed a DM detection in the data collected by the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi $\gamma$-ray Satellite from the inner Galaxy region at energies below 10 GeV. However, an exotic signal needs to be disentangled from the data using a model of known $\gamma$-ray emitters, i.e. a background model. We point out that deep understanding of background ingredients and their main uncertainties is of capital importance to disentangle a dark matter signal from the Galaxy center.

arXiv comment12 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the VULCANO Workshop 2014, "Frontier Objects in Astrophysics and Particle Physics", Vulcano May 18-24, 2014, Frascati Physics Series Vol. 58 (2014)

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