Solving the Cooling Flow Problem of Galaxy Clusters by Dark Matter Neutralino Annihilation

Abstract

Recent X-ray observations revealed that strong cooling flow of intracluster gas is not present in galaxy clusters, even though predicted theoretically if there is no additional heating source. I show that relativistic particles produced by dark matter neutralino annihilation in cluster cores provide a sufficient heating source to suppress the cooling flow, under reasonable astrophysical circumstances including adiabatic growth of central density profile, with appropriate particle physics parameters for dark matter neutralinos. In contrast to other astrophysical heat sources such as AGNs, this process is a steady and stable feedback over cosmological time scales after turned on.

4 pages, no figure. Accepted to Phys. Rev. Lett. A few minor revisions and references added

References in corpus (5)

• Models of Galaxy Clusters with Thermal Conduction
• EGRET upper limits on the high-energy gamma-ray emission of galaxy clusters
• Chandra Observations of Abell 2029: The Dark Matter Profile Down to <0.01 R_vir in an Unusually Relaxed Cluster
• On conduction, cooling flows and galaxy formation
• Lowering Inferred Cluster Magnetic Field Strengths - the radio galaxy contributions

Cited by in corpus (16)

• X-ray Spectroscopy of Cooling Clusters
• Multi-frequency analysis of neutralino dark matter annihilations in the Coma cluster
• Fermi Discovery of Gamma-Ray Emission from NGC 1275
• Gamma Rays from Clusters and Groups of Galaxies: Cosmic Rays versus Dark Matter
• Extragalactic Inverse Compton Light from Dark Matter Annihilation and the Pamela Positron Excess
• Two Clusters with Radio-quiet Cooling Cores
• Suzaku Observation of the Ophiuchus Galaxy Cluster: One of the Hottest Cool Core Clusters
• Non-thermal Emissions from Cool Cores Heated by Cosmic-Rays in Galaxy Clusters
• Detection of a pair of prominent X-ray cavities in Abell 3847
• The Morphology of the Galactic Dark Matter Synchrotron Emission with Self-Consistent Cosmic Ray Diffusion Models
• The origin of the diffuse non-thermal X-ray and radio emission in the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies
• Effect of dark matter annihilation on gas cooling and star formation
• AGN driven perturbations in the intra-cluster medium of cool core cluster ZwCl 2701
• Gamma Rays from Star Formation in Clusters of Galaxies
• Consequences of dark matter self-annihilation for galaxy formation
• Heating the intergalactic medium by radiative decay of neutrinos