A Search for Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo with HAWC

Abstract

The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field-of-view observatory sensitive to 500 GeV - 100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. With its observations over 2/3 of the sky every day, the HAWC observatory is sensitive to a wide variety of astrophysical sources, including possible gamma rays from dark matter. Dark matter annihilation and decay in the Milky Way Galaxy should produce gamma-ray signals across many degrees on the sky. The HAWC instantaneous field-of-view of 2 sr enables observations of extended regions on the sky, such as those from dark matter in the Galactic halo. Here we show limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime from HAWC observations of the Galactic halo with 15 months of data. These are some of the most robust limits on TeV and PeV dark matter, largely insensitive to the dark matter morphology. These limits begin to constrain models in which PeV IceCube neutrinos are explained by dark matter which primarily decays into hadrons.

arXiv comment24 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (67)

• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• PYTHIA 6.4 Physics and Manual
• PYTHIA 6.2 Physics and Manual
• An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
• A Brief Introduction to PYTHIA 8.1
• Evidence for High-Energy Extraterrestrial Neutrinos at the IceCube Detector
• The Diversity and Similarity of Simulated Cold Dark Matter Halos
• First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube
• A novel determination of the local dark matter density
• A combined maximum-likelihood analysis of the high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux measured with IceCube
• Quantifying the heart of darkness with GHALO - a multi-billion particle simulation of our galactic halo
• Evidence for Astrophysical Muon Neutrinos from the Northern Sky with IceCube
• The Dark Matter Halo of the Milky Way, AD 2013
• Hidden Cosmic-Ray Accelerators as an Origin of TeV-PeV Cosmic Neutrinos
• Observation of the Crab Nebula with the HAWC Gamma-Ray Observatory
• The 2HWC HAWC Observatory Gamma Ray Catalog
• All-sky search for time-integrated neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 7 years of IceCube data
• Search for dark matter annihilations towards the inner Galactic halo from 10 years of observations with H.E.S.S
• Atmospheric and Astrophysical Neutrinos above 1 TeV Interacting in IceCube
• Self-Interacting Dark Matter from a Non-Abelian Hidden Sector
• Constraining High-Energy Cosmic Neutrino Sources: Implications and Prospects
• Searches for Extended and Point-like Neutrino Sources with Four Years of IceCube Data
• Neutrinos at IceCube from Heavy Decaying Dark Matter
• Observation of TeV Gamma Rays from the Crab Nebula with Milagro Using a New Background Rejection Technique
• Implications of High-Resolution Simulations on Indirect Dark Matter Searches
• Gamma-ray Constraints on Decaying Dark Matter and Implications for IceCube
• Testing the Dark Matter Scenario for PeV Neutrinos Observed in IceCube
• Are IceCube neutrinos unveiling PeV-scale decaying dark matter?
• Thermal Dark Matter From A Highly Decoupled Sector
• Upper Bound on the Dark Matter Total Annihilation Cross Section
• PeV-Scale Dark Matter as a Thermal Relic of a Decoupled Sector
• Superheavy dark matter and IceCube neutrino signals:bounds on decaying dark matter
• Unitarity Bounds and the Cuspy Halo Problem
• Search for time-independent neutrino emission from astrophysical sources with 3 years of IceCube data
• Self-Interacting Dark Matter from the Hidden Heterotic-String Sector
• IceCube events and decaying dark matter: hints and constraints
• Weak Gauge Boson Radiation in Parton Showers
• Non-Abelian Dark Forces and the Relic Densities of Dark Glueballs
• Cosmic-Ray Neutrinos from the Decay of Long-Lived Particle and the Recent IceCube Result
• Neutrinoful Universe
• Observation of Small-scale Anisotropy in the Arrival Direction Distribution of TeV Cosmic Rays with HAWC
• Reconciling neutrino flux from heavy dark matter decay and recent events at IceCube
• Constraining heavy decaying dark matter with the high energy gamma-ray limits
• Gamma-ray bounds from EAS detectors and heavy decaying dark matter constraints
• Decaying Leptophilic Dark Matter at IceCube
• Heavy right-handed neutrino dark matter and PeV neutrinos at IceCube
• String Theory and the Dark Glueball Problem
• Monochromatic neutrinos generated by dark matter and the see-saw mechanism
• Unifying leptogenesis, dark matter and high-energy neutrinos with right-handed neutrino mixing via Higgs portal
• Possible Interpretations of IceCube High-Energy Neutrino Events
• A Case for Radio Galaxies as the Sources of IceCube's Astrophysical Neutrino Flux
• Interpreting IceCube 6-year HESE data as an evidence for hundred TeV decaying Dark Matter
• Galactic PeV neutrinos from dark matter annihilation
• The Sensitivity of HAWC to High-Mass Dark Matter Annihilations
• Pairwise sums in colourings of the reals
• IceCube Events from Heavy DM decays through the Right-handed Neutrino Portal
• Low energy IceCube data and a possible Dark Matter related excess
• Cosmological Implications of High-Energy Neutrino Emission from the Decay of Long-Lived Particle
• A consistent model for leptogenesis, dark matter and the IceCube signal
• Search for Very High Energy Gamma Rays from the Northern $\text{Fermi}$ Bubble Region with HAWC
• A Consistent Theory of Decaying Dark Matter Connecting IceCube to the Sesame Street
• A Cosmic Selection Rule for Glueball Dark Matter Relic Density
• On the IceCube spectral anomaly
• Dark Matter interpretation of low energy IceCube MESE excess
• Dark Matter Decay to a Photon and a Neutrino: the Double Monochromatic Smoking Gun Scenario
• Hadronically decaying heavy dark matter and high-energy neutrino limits
• Use of ANTARES and IceCube data to constrain a single power-law neutrino flux

Cited by in corpus (37)

• GeV-Scale Thermal WIMPs: Not Even Slightly Dead
• A Next-Generation Liquid Xenon Observatory for Dark Matter and Neutrino Physics
• TeV-Scale Thermal WIMPs: Unitarity and its Consequences
• Search for neutrinos from decaying dark matter with IceCube
• Search for dark matter annihilation signals in the H.E.S.S. Inner Galaxy Survey
• Heavy decaying dark matter and IceCube high energy neutrinos
• Primordial Extremal Black Holes as Dark Matter
• Status, Challenges and Directions in Indirect Dark Matter Searches
• Asymmetric dark matter: residual annihilations and self-interactions
• Snowmass2021 Cosmic Frontier White Paper: Ultraheavy particle dark matter
• Can winds driven by active galactic nuclei account for the extragalactic gamma-ray and neutrino backgrounds?
• Hunting for super-heavy dark matter with the highest-energy cosmic rays
• Searching for Dark Matter in the Galactic Halo with a Wide Field of View TeV Gamma-ray Observatory in the Southern Hemisphere
• Constraints on heavy decaying dark matter from 570 days of LHAASO observations
• Decaying dark matter at IceCube and its signature on High Energy gamma experiments
• Exploration at the high-energy frontier: ATLAS Run~2 searches investigating the exotic jungle beyond the Standard Model
• Revisiting ultrahigh-energy constraints on decaying super-heavy dark matter
• First implications of Tibet AS${}_{\gamma }$ data for heavy dark matter
• LHAASO sensitivity for diffuse gamma-ray signals from the Galaxy
• Cumulative Neutrino and Gamma-Ray Backgrounds from Halo and Galaxy Mergers
• Probing dark matter signals in neutrino telescopes through angular power spectrum
• Toward the ultimate reach of current imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes and their sensitivity to TeV dark matter
• Current and future gamma-ray searches for dark-matter annihilation beyond the unitarity limit
• Lepton Flavor Violation Induced by Dark Matter
• Mergers of Maximally Charged Primordial Black Holes
• Morphology of Gamma-Ray Halos around Middle-Aged Pulsars: Influence of the Pulsar Proper Motion
• A Search for Neutrino Point-Source Populations in 7 Years of IceCube Data with Neutrino-count Statistics
• Multi-messenger High-Energy Signatures of Decaying Dark Matter and the Effect of Background Light
• The prediction of using LHAASO's cosmic-ray electron measurements to constrain decaying heavy dark matter
• Gamma rays from dark matter spikes in EAGLE simulations
• Combination and summary of ATLAS dark matter searches interpreted in a 2HDM with a pseudo-scalar mediator using 139 fb${}^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collision data
• Astrophysical constraints from synchrotron emission on very massive decaying dark matter
• Bounds from multi-messenger astronomy on the Super Heavy Dark Matter
• Prospects for annihilating dark matter from M31 and M33 observations with the Cherenkov Telescope Array
• Electroweak Dark Matter
• Mesotuned WIMPs and Avoided Deconfinement
• Parametric Coincidence in the Baryon to Dark Matter Ratio from Affleck-Dine Baryogenesis and UV Freeze-in Dark Matter