scholarly journals Remnants of Galactic Subhalos and Their Impact on Indirect Dark-Matter Searches

Galaxies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Stref ◽  
Thomas Lacroix ◽  
Julien Lavalle

Dark-matter subhalos, predicted in large numbers in the cold-dark-matter scenario, should have an impact on dark-matter-particle searches. Recent results show that tidal disruption of these objects in computer simulations is overefficient due to numerical artifacts and resolution effects. Accounting for these results, we re-estimated the subhalo abundance in the Milky Way using semianalytical techniques. In particular, we showed that the boost factor for gamma rays and cosmic-ray antiprotons is increased by roughly a factor of two.

2020 ◽  
Vol 499 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-128
Author(s):  
Jeremy J Webb ◽  
Jo Bovy

ABSTRACT We compare the results of high-resolution simulations of individual dark matter subhaloes evolving in external tidal fields with and without baryonic bulge and disc components, where the average dark matter particle mass is three orders of magnitude smaller than cosmological zoom-in simulations of galaxy formation. The Via Lactea II simulation is used to setup our initial conditions and provides a basis for our simulations of subhaloes in a dark-matter-only tidal field, while an observationally motivated model for the Milky-Way is used for the tidal field that is comprised of a dark matter halo, a stellar disc, and a stellar bulge. Our simulations indicate that including stellar components in the tidal field results in the number of subhaloes in Milky-Way-like galaxies being only $65{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of what is predicted by Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM). For subhaloes with small pericentres (rp ≲ 25 kpc), the subhalo abundance is reduced further to $40{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, with the surviving subhaloes being less dense and having a tangentially anisotropic orbital distribution. Conversely, subhaloes with larger pericentres are minimally affected by the inclusion of a stellar component in the tidal field, with the total number of outer subhaloes $\approx 75{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the ΛCDM prediction. The densities of outer subhaloes are comparable to predictions from ΛCDM, with the subhaloes having an isotropic distribution of orbits. These ratios are higher than those found in previous studies that include the effects baryonic matter, which are affected by spurious disruption caused by low resolution.


1987 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 490-490
Author(s):  
A. K. Drukier ◽  
K. Freese ◽  
D. N. Spergel

We consider the use of superheated superconducting colloids as detectors of weakly interacting galactic halo candidate particles (e.g. photinos, massive neutrinos, and scalar neutrinos). These low temperature detectors are sensitive to the deposition of a few hundreds of eV's. The recoil of a dark matter particle off of a superheated superconducting grain in the detector causes the grain to make a transition to the normal state. Their low energy threshold makes this class of detectors ideal for detecting massive weakly interacting halo particles.We discuss realistic models for the detector and for the galactic halo. We show that the expected count rate (≈103 count/day for scalar and massive neutrinos) exceeds the expected background by several orders of magnitude. For photinos, we expect ≈1 count/day, more than 100 times the predicted background rate. We find that if the detector temperature is maintained at 50 mK and the system noise is reduced below 5 × 10−4 flux quanta, particles with mass as low as 2 GeV can be detected. We show that the earth's motion around the Sun can produce a significant annual modulation in the signal.


Author(s):  
Kun Ting Eddie Chua ◽  
Karia Dibert ◽  
Mark Vogelsberger ◽  
Jesús Zavala

Abstract We study the effects of inelastic dark matter self-interactions on the internal structure of a simulated Milky Way (MW)-size halo. Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) is an alternative to collisionless cold dark matter (CDM) which offers a unique solution to the problems encountered with CDM on sub-galactic scales. Although previous SIDM simulations have mainly considered elastic collisions, theoretical considerations motivate the existence of multi-state dark matter where transitions from the excited to the ground state are exothermic. In this work, we consider a self-interacting, two-state dark matter model with inelastic collisions, implemented in the Arepo code. We find that energy injection from inelastic self-interactions reduces the central density of the MW halo in a shorter timescale relative to the elastic scale, resulting in a larger core size. Inelastic collisions also isotropize the orbits, resulting in an overall lower velocity anisotropy for the inelastic MW halo. In the inner halo, the inelastic SIDM case (minor-to-major axis ratio s ≡ c/a ≈ 0.65) is more spherical than the CDM (s ≈ 0.4), but less spherical than the elastic SIDM case (s ≈ 0.75). The speed distribution f(v) of dark matter particles at the location of the Sun in the inelastic SIDM model shows a significant departure from the CDM model, with f(v) falling more steeply at high speeds. In addition, the velocity kicks imparted during inelastic collisions produce unbound high-speed particles with velocities up to 500 km s−1 throughout the halo. This implies that inelastic SIDM can potentially leave distinct signatures in direct detection experiments, relative to elastic SIDM and CDM.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (4) ◽  
pp. 5583-5588
Author(s):  
Man Ho Chan ◽  
Chak Man Lee

ABSTRACT In the past decade, various instruments, such as the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) and the Dark Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE), have been used to detect the signals of annihilating dark matter in our Galaxy. Although some excesses of gamma rays, antiprotons and electrons/positrons have been reported and are claimed to be dark matter signals, the uncertainties of the contributions of Galactic pulsars are still too large to confirm the claims. In this paper, we report on a possible radio signal of annihilating dark matter manifested in the archival radio continuum spectral data of the Abell 4038 cluster. By assuming a thermal annihilation cross-section and comparing the dark matter annihilation model with the null hypothesis (cosmic ray emission without dark matter annihilation), we obtain very large test statistic (TS) values, TS > 45, for four popular annihilation channels, which correspond to more than 6σ statistical preference. This reveals a possible potential signal of annihilating dark matter. In particular, our results are also consistent with the recent claims of dark matter mass, m ≈ 30–50 GeV, annihilating via the $\rm b\bar{b}$ quark channel with the thermal annihilation cross-section. However, at this time, we cannot exclude the possibility that a better background cosmic ray model could explain the spectral data without recourse to dark matter annihilations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. eaax3793 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Q. An ◽  
R. Asfandiyarov ◽  
P. Azzarello ◽  
P. Bernardini ◽  
...  

The precise measurement of the spectrum of protons, the most abundant component of the cosmic radiation, is necessary to understand the source and acceleration of cosmic rays in the Milky Way. This work reports the measurement of the cosmic ray proton fluxes with kinetic energies from 40 GeV to 100 TeV, with 2 1/2 years of data recorded by the DArk Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE). This is the first time that an experiment directly measures the cosmic ray protons up to ~100 TeV with high statistics. The measured spectrum confirms the spectral hardening at ~300 GeV found by previous experiments and reveals a softening at ~13.6 TeV, with the spectral index changing from ~2.60 to ~2.85. Our result suggests the existence of a new spectral feature of cosmic rays at energies lower than the so-called knee and sheds new light on the origin of Galactic cosmic rays.


2019 ◽  
Vol 495 (1) ◽  
pp. L124-L128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Ho Chan ◽  
Chak Man Lee

ABSTRACT In the past decade, some telescopes [e.g. Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT), Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer(AMS), and Dark Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE)] were launched to detect the signals of annihilating dark matter in our Galaxy. Although some excess of gamma-rays, antiprotons, and electrons/positrons have been reported and claimed as dark matter signals, the uncertainties of Galactic pulsars’ contributions are still too large to confirm the claims. In this Letter, we report a possible radio signal of annihilating dark matter manifested in the archival radio continuum spectral data of the Abell 4038 cluster. By assuming the thermal annihilation cross-section and comparing the dark matter annihilation model with the null hypothesis (cosmic ray emission without dark matter annihilation), we get very large test statistic values >45 for four popular annihilation channels, which correspond to more than 6.5σ statistical preference. This provides a very strong evidence for the existence of annihilating dark matter. In particular, our results also support the recent claims of dark matter mass m ≈ 30–50 GeV annihilating via the bb̄ quark channel with the thermal annihilation cross-section.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (S298) ◽  
pp. 411-411
Author(s):  
Kohei Hayashi ◽  
Masashi Chiba

AbstractWe construct axisymmetric mass models for dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies in the Milky Way to obtain realistic limits on the non-spherical structure of their dark halos. This is motivated by the fact that the observed luminous parts of the dSphs are actually non-spherical and cold dark matter models predict non-spherical virialized dark halos on sub-galactic scales. Applying these models to line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles along three position angles in six Galactic satellites, we find that the best fitting cases for most of the dSphs yield not spherical but oblate and flattened dark halos. We also find that the mass of the dSphs enclosed within inner 300 pc varies depending on their total luminosities, contrary to the conclusion of previous spherical models. This suggests the importance of considering non-spherical shapes of dark halos in dSph mass models.


2010 ◽  
Vol 408 (4) ◽  
pp. 2364-2372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis E. Strigari ◽  
Carlos S. Frenk ◽  
Simon D. M. White

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S254) ◽  
pp. 179-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary F. G. Wyse

AbstractI discuss how the chemical abundance distributions, kinematics and age distributions of stars in the thin and thick disks of the Galaxy can be used to decipher the merger history of the Milky Way, a typical large galaxy. The observational evidence points to a rather quiescent past merging history, unusual in the context of the ‘consensus’ cold-dark-matter cosmology favoured from observations of structure on scales larger than individual galaxies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document