Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2011-09-30
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
13 pages, 11 figures
Scientific paper
The region surrounding the center of the Milky Way is both astrophysically rich and complex, and is predicted to contain very high densities of dark matter. Utilizing three years of data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope (and the recently available Pass 7 ultraclean event class), we study the morphology and spectrum of the gamma ray emission from this region and find evidence of a spatially extended component which peaks at energies between 300 MeV and 10 GeV. We compare our results to those reported by other groups and find good agreement. The extended emission could potentially originate from either the annihilations of dark matter particles in the inner galaxy, or from the collisions of high energy protons that are accelerated by the Milky Way's supermassive black hole with gas. If interpreted as dark matter annihilation products, the emission spectrum favors dark matter particles with a mass in the range of 7-12 GeV (if annihilating dominantly to leptons) or 25-45 GeV (if annihilating dominantly to hadronic final states). The intensity of the emission corresponds to a dark matter annihilation cross section consistent with that required to generate the observed cosmological abundance in the early universe (sigma v ~ 3 x 10^-26 cm^3/s). We also present conservative limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section which are at least as stringent as those derived from other observations.
Hooper Dan
Linden Tim
No associations
LandOfFree
On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-236267