Consistency of Hitomi, XMM-Newton and Chandra 3.5 keV data from Perseus

Abstract

\emph{Hitomi} observations of Perseus with the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS) provide a high-resolution look at the 3.5 keV feature reported by multiple groups in the Perseus cluster. The \emph{Hitomi} spectrum -- which involves the sum of diffuse cluster emission and the point-like central Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) -- does not show any excess at $E\sim 3.5\mathrm{keV}$, giving an apparent inconsistency with previous observations of excess diffuse emission. We point out that 2009 \emph{Chandra} data reveals a strong dip in the AGN spectrum at $E=(3.54\pm 0.02)\mathrm{keV}$ (cluster frame) -- the identical energy to the diffuse excess observed by \emph{XMM-Newton}. Scaling this dip to the 2016 AGN luminosity and adding it to the diffuse \emph{XMM-Newton} excess, this predicts an overall dip in the SXS field of view of $(-5.9\pm 4.4)\times 10^{-6}\mathrm{ph}{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ at $E=3.54$ keV -- a precise match to the \emph{Hitomi} data when broadened by the dark matter virial velocity. We describe models of Fluorescent Dark Matter that can reproduce this physics, in which dark matter absorbs and then re-emits 3.5 keV photons emitted from the central AGN.

v2. 7 pages; v3. as accepted in Phys. Rev. D

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• 7.1 keV sterile neutrino dark matter constraints from a deep Chandra X-ray observation of the Galactic bulge Limiting Window
• Supercritically charged objects and electron-positron pair creation
• Polarization of photons emitted by decaying dark matter
• The 3.5 keV Line from Stringy Axions
• The shadow of dark matter as a shadow of string theory
• The 3.5 keV line from non-perturbative Standard Model dark matter balls
• Detecting Fluorescent Dark Matter with X-ray lasers