Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2011-08-05
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
18 pages, 3 figures, accepted to MNRAS, updated with predictions for ATHENA and some additional discussion of systematics
Scientific paper
We analyze the impact of future hard X-ray observations on the search for indirect signatures of particle dark matter in large extragalactic systems such as nearby clusters or groups of galaxies. We argue that the hard X-ray energy band falls squarely at the peak of the inverse Compton emission from electrons and positrons produced by dark matter annihilation or decay for a large class of dark matter models. Specifically, the most promising are low-mass models with a hard electron-positron annihilation final state spectrum and intermediate-mass models with a soft electron-positron spectrum. We find that constraints on dark matter models similar to the current constraints from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope will be close to the sensitivity limit of the near-term hard X-ray telescopes NuSTAR and ASTRO-H for relatively long observations. An instrument like the Wide Field Imager (WFI) proposed for ATHENA would instead give a significant gain in sensitivity to dark matter if placed in a low background orbit similar to NuSTAR's; however, given the higher expected background level for ATHENA's proposed orbit at L2, its sensitivity will be similar to that of NuSTAR.
Jeltema Tesla E.
Profumo Stefano
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