The role of the eROSITA all-sky survey in searches for sterile neutrino dark matter

Abstract

We investigate for the first time the potential of angular auto- and cross-correlation power spectra in identifying sterile neutrino dark matter in the cosmic X-ray background. We take as reference the performance of the soon-to-be-launched eROSITA satellite. The main astrophysical background sources against sterile neutrino decays are active galactic nuclei, galaxies powered by X-ray binaries, and clusters of galaxies. While sterile neutrino decays are always subdominant in the auto-correlation power spectra, they can be efficiently enhanced when cross-correlating with tracers of the dark matter distribution such as galaxies in the 2MASS catalogues. We show that the planned four-years eROSITA all-sky survey will provide a large enough photon statistics to potentially yield very stringent constraints on the decay lifetime, enabling to firmly test the recently claimed 3.56-keV X-ray line found towards several clusters and galaxies and its decaying dark matter interpretation. However, we also show that in order to fully exploit the potential of eROSITA for dark matter searches, it is vital to overcome the shot-noise limitations inherent to galaxy catalogues as tracers for the dark matter distribution.

26 pages, 12 figures, version accepted by JCAP

References in corpus (23)

• eROSITA Science Book: Mapping the Structure of the Energetic Universe
• X-ray spectral properties of AGN in the Chandra Deep Field South
• The Evolution of Obscuration in AGN
• Discovery of a 3.5 keV line in the Galactic Center and a Critical Look at the Origin of the Line Across Astronomical Targets
• Direct X-ray Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Warm Dark Matter
• The COpernicus COmplexio: Statistical Properties of Warm Dark Matter Haloes
• The nature of the Diffuse Gamma-Ray Background
• Constraints on decaying Dark Matter from XMM-Newton observations of M31
• Dark matter annihilation or unresolved astrophysical sources? Anisotropy probe of the origin of cosmic gamma-ray background
• Where do the 3.5 keV photons come from? A morphological study of the Galactic Center and of Perseus
• An X-ray Spectroscopic Search for Dark Matter in the Perseus Cluster with Suzaku
• Cross-Correlation of Cosmic Shear and Extragalactic Gamma-ray Background: Constraints on the Dark Matter Annihilation Cross-Section
• Tomography of the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray diffuse extragalactic signal via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogs
• Dark matter searches in the gamma-ray extragalactic background via cross-correlations with galaxy catalogues
• The nature of the unresolved extragalactic soft CXB
• Particle dark matter searches outside the Local Group
• Evidence of cross-correlation between the CMB lensing and the gamma-ray sky
• Power spectrum tomography of dark matter annihilation with local galaxy distribution
• Comment on "Dark matter searches going bananas: the contribution of Potassium (and Chlorine) to the 3.5 keV line"
• Comment on the paper "Dark matter searches going bananas: the contribution of Potassium (and Chlorine) to the 3.5 keV line" by T. Jeltema and S. Profumo
• Testing the origin of ~3.55 keV line in individual galaxy clusters observed with XMM-Newton
• Reply to Two Comments on "Dark matter searches going bananas the contribution of Potassium (and Chlorine) to the 3.5 keV line"
• Angular Power Spectra with Finite Counts

Cited by in corpus (20)

• A White Paper on keV Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter
• Sterile neutrinos in cosmology
• Lessons from HAWC PWNe observations: the diffusion constant is not a constant; Pulsars remain the likeliest sources of the anomalous positron fraction; Cosmic rays are trapped for long periods of time in pockets of inefficient diffusion
• Dodelson-Widrow Production of Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter with Non-Trivial Initial Abundance
• Radial Profile of the 3.55 keV line out to $R_{200}$ in the Perseus Cluster
• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter
• Dark Matter Velocity Spectroscopy
• Searching for Sterile Neutrino with X-ray Intensity Mapping
• Decaying dark matter in dwarf spheroidal galaxies: Prospects for X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes
• Probing Cosmology and Cluster Astrophysics with Multi-Wavelength Surveys I. Correlation Statistics
• 7.1 keV sterile neutrino constraints from X-ray observations of 33 clusters of galaxies with Chandra ACIS
• Observation of the new emission line at ~3.5 keV in X-ray spectra of galaxies and galaxy clusters
• MultiDark-Clusters: Galaxy Cluster Mock Light-Cones, eROSITA and the Cluster Power Spectrum
• Searching for Signal of Primordial Black Hole from CMB Lensing and $\gamma$-ray Emissions
• Towards Testing Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter with Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma Mission
• Got plenty of nothing: cosmic voids as a probe of particle dark matter
• A sensitive search for unknown spectral emission lines in the diffuse X-ray background with XMM-Newton
• The X-ray Angular Power Spectrum of Extended Sources in the eROSITA Final Equatorial Depth Survey
• Correlation Analysis of Decaying Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter in the Context of the SRG Mission
• Neutrinos in Astrophysics and Cosmology: Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI) 2020 Lectures