Prospects For Detecting Dark Matter With GLAST In Light Of The WMAP Haze

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

10 pages, 6 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.77.043511

Observations by the WMAP experiment have identified an excess of microwave emission from the center of the Milky Way. It has previously been shown that this "WMAP Haze" could be synchrotron emission from relativistic electrons and positrons produced in the annihilations of dark matter particles. In particular, the intensity, spectrum and angular distribution of the WMAP Haze is consistent with an electroweak scale dark matter particle (such as a supersymmetric neutralino or Kaluza-Klein dark matter in models with universal extra dimensions) annihilating with a cross section on the order of sigma v~3x10^-26 cm^3/s and distributed with a cusped halo profile. No further exotic astrophysical or annihilation boost factors are required. If dark matter annihilations are in fact responsible for the observed Haze, then other annihilation products will also be produced, including gamma rays. In this article, we study the prospects for the GLAST satellite to detect gamma rays from dark matter annihilations in the Galactic Center region in this scenario. We find that by studying only the inner 0.1 degrees around the Galactic Center, GLAST will be able to detect dark matter annihilating to heavy quarks or gauge bosons over astrophysical backgrounds with 5sigma (3sigma) significance if they are lighter than approximately 320-500 GeV (500-750 GeV). If the angular window is broadened to study the dark matter halo profile's angular extension (while simultaneously reducing the astrophysical backgrounds), WIMPs as heavy as several TeV can be identified by GLAST with high significance. Only if the dark matter particles annihilate mostly to electrons or muons will GLAST be unable to identify the gamma ray spectrum associated with the WMAP Haze.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Prospects For Detecting Dark Matter With GLAST In Light Of The WMAP Haze 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 Prospects For Detecting Dark Matter With GLAST In Light Of The WMAP Haze, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Prospects For Detecting Dark Matter With GLAST In Light Of The WMAP Haze will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-517504

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.