Testing for Dark Matter in the Outskirts of Globular Clusters

The proper motions of stars in the outskirts of globular clusters are used to estimate cluster velocity dispersion profiles as far as possible within their tidal radii. We use individual color–magnitude diagrams to select high-probability cluster stars for 25 metal-poor globular clusters within 20 kpc of the Sun, 19 of which have substantial numbers of stars at large radii. Of the 19, 11 clusters have a falling velocity dispersion in the 3–6 half-mass radii range, 6 are flat, and 2 plausibly have a rising velocity dispersion. The profiles are all in the range expected from simulated clusters that started at high redshift in a zoom-in cosmological simulation. The 11 clusters with falling velocity dispersion profiles are consistent with no dark matter above the Galactic background. The six clusters with approximately flat velocity dispersion profiles could have local dark matter, but are ambiguous. The two clusters with rising velocity dispersion profiles are consistent with a remnant local dark matter halo, but need membership confirmation and detailed orbital modeling to further test these preliminary results.

INCREASES IN SCR ENERGETIC PROTON FLUXES ON EARTH AND THEIR RELATION TO SOLAR SOURCES

Logachev catalog data for solar cycle 23 has been used to study the dependence of measured increases in solar cosmic rays (SCRs) on solar perturbations. The efficiency of recording the SCR increases, driven by proton acceleration in the corona, on Earth and in its vicinity is shown to depend on power of a solar flare that created a shock wave and on position of the flare on the solar disk. As the particle flux moves along the heliolongitude away from the parent flare, the acceleration efficiency decreases, i.e. the maximum energy of the accelerated particles and their intensity at equal energy decrease. As a result, at a certain distance along a heliolongitude from the parent solar flare, the solar proton flux intensity decreases to the galactic background, and there is no SCR increase detected.

INCREASES IN SCR ENERGETIC PROTON FLUXES ON EARTH AND THEIR RELATION TO SOLAR SOURCES

Logachev catalog data for solar cycle 23 has been used to study the dependence of measured increases in solar cosmic rays (SCRs) on solar perturbations. The efficiency of recording the SCR increases, driven by proton acceleration in the corona, on Earth and in its vicinity is shown to depend on power of a solar flare that created a shock wave and on position of the flare on the solar disk. As the particle flux moves along the heliolongitude away from the parent flare, the acceleration efficiency decreases, i.e. the maximum energy of the accelerated particles and their intensity at equal energy decrease. As a result, at a certain distance along a heliolongitude from the parent solar flare, the solar proton flux intensity decreases to the galactic background, and there is no SCR increase detected.

Dark matter and pulsar model constraints from Galactic center Fermi/LAT γ-ray observations

Employing Fermi/LAT γ-ray observations, several independent groups have found excess extended γ-ray emission at the Galactic center (GC). Both, annihilating dark matter (DM) or a population of ~ 103 unresolved millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are regarded as well motivated possible explanations. However, there is significant uncertainties in the diffuse Galactic background at the GC. We have performed a revaluation of these two models for the extended γ-ray source at the GC by accounting for the systematic uncertainties of the Galactic diffuse emission model. We also marginalize over point source and diffuse background parameters in the region of interest. We show that the excess emission is significantly more extended than a point source. We find that the DM (or pulsar population) signal is larger than the systematic errors and therefore proceed to determine the sectors of parameter space that provide an acceptable fit to the data. We found that a population of several thousand MSPs with parameters consistent with the average spectral shape of Fermi/LAT measured MSPs was able to fit the GC excess emission. For DM, we found that a pure τ+τ− annihilation channel is not a good fit to the data. But a mixture of τ+τ− and bb with a 〈σ v〉 of order the thermal relic value and a DM mass of around 20 to 60 GeV provides an adequate fit.

Broad view on hard X-ray background emission of the Galaxy

The nature of the Galactic Ridge X-Ray Emission (GRXE) has been under scientific debate since its discovery more than 30 years ago. It is observed as extended emission along the Galactic disk. The question was: is GRXE truly diffuse or is it composed from a large number of unresolved point sources? Using near-infrared Galaxy maps measured with the DIRBE experiment and data from the INTEGRAL observatory, we show that the galactic background in the energy range 20-60 keV originates from the stellar population of the Galaxy, which is in contrast to the diffuse nature believed before (Krivonos et al., 2007). Here we show preliminary results of studying the transition region from hard X-rays to gamma diffuse background of the Galaxy, revealing the broad band picture of Galactic Background emission.

Anisotropies of the infrared background and primordial galaxies

We discuss anisotropies in the near-IR background between 1 to a few microns. This background is expected to contain a signature of primordial galaxies. We have measured fluctuations of resolved galaxies with Spitzer imaging data and we are developing a rocket-borne instrument (the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment, or CIBER) to search for signatures of primordial galaxy formation in the cosmic near-infrared extra-galactic background.