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  • Dark Matter Searches in the Gamma-ray Extragalactic Background via Cross-correlations With Galaxy Catalogs

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 提交时间: 2016-09-13

    摘要: We compare the measured angular cross-correlation between the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sky and catalogues of extra-galactic objects with the expected signal induced by weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM). We include a detailed description of the contribution of astrophysical gamma-ray emitters such as blazars, misaligned AGN and star forming galaxies, and perform a global fit to the measured cross-correlation. Five catalogues are considered: SDSS-DR6 quasars, 2MASS galaxies, NVSS radio galaxies, SDSS-DR8 Luminous Red Galaxies and SDSS-DR8 main galaxy sample. To model the cross-correlation signal we use the halo occupation distribution formalism to estimate the number of galaxies of a given catalogue in DM halos and their spatial correlation properties. We discuss uncertainties in the predicted cross-correlation signal arising from the DM clustering and WIMP microscopic properties, which set the DM gamma-ray emission. The use of different catalogues probing objects at different redshifts reduces significantly, though not completely, the degeneracy among the different gamma-ray components. We find that the presence of a significant WIMP DM signal is allowed by the data but not significantly preferred by the fit, although this is mainly due to a degeneracy with the misaligned AGN component. With modest substructure boost, the sensitivity of this method excludes thermal annihilation cross sections at 95% C.L. for WIMP masses up to few tens of GeV. Constraining the low-redshift properties of astrophysical populations with future data will further improve the sensitivity to DM.

  • Particle dark matter searches outside the Local Group

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 提交时间: 2016-09-13

    摘要: If dark matter (DM) is composed by particles which are non-gravitationally coupled to ordinary matter, their annihilations or decays in cosmic structures can result in detectable radiation. We show that the most powerful technique to detect a particle DM signal outside the Local Group is to study the angular cross-correlation of non-gravitational signals with low-redshift gravitational probes. This method allows to enhance signal-to-noise from the regions of the Universe where the DM-induced emission is preferentially generated. We demonstrate the power of this approach by focusing on GeV-TeV DM and on the recent cross-correlation analysis between the 2MASS galaxy catalogue and the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray maps. We show that this technique is more sensitive than other extragalactic gamma-ray probes, such as the energy spectrum and angular autocorrelation of the extragalactic background, and emission from clusters of galaxies. Intriguingly, we find that the measured cross-correlation can be well fitted by a DM component, with thermal annihilation cross section and mass between 10 and 100 GeV, depending on the small-scale DM properties and gamma-ray production mechanism. This solicits further data collection and dedicated analyses.

  • Tomography of the Fermi-lat $\gamma$-ray Diffuse Extragalactic Signal via Cross Correlations With Galaxy Catalogs

    分类: 物理学 >> 核物理学 提交时间: 2016-09-13

    摘要: Building on our previous cross-correlation analysis (Xia et al. 2011) between the isotropic gamma-ray background (IGRB) and different tracers of the large-scale structure of the universe, we update our results using 60-months of data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. We perform a cross-correlation analysis between the IGRB and objects that may trace the astrophysical sources of the IGRB: SDSS-DR6 QSOs, the SDSS-DR8 Main Galaxy Sample, Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the SDSS catalog, 2MASS galaxies, and radio NVSS galaxies. The benefit of correlating the Fermi-LAT signal with catalogs of objects at various redshifts is to provide tomographic information on the IGRB which is crucial to separate the various contributions and to clarify its origin. We observe a significant (>3.5 sigma) cross-correlation signal on angular scales smaller than 1 deg in the NVSS, 2MASS and QSO cases and, at lower statistical significance (~3.0 sigma), with SDSS galaxies. These results are robust against the choice of the statistical estimator, estimate of errors, map cleaning procedure and instrumental effects. Finally, we test the hypothesis that the IGRB observed by Fermi-LAT originates from the summed contributions of three types of unresolved extragalactic sources: BL Lacs, FSRQs and Star-Forming Galaxies (SFGs). We find that a model in which the IGRB is mainly produced by SFGs (72+23−37% with 2 sigma errors), with BL Lacs and FSRQs giving a minor contribution, provides a good fit to the data. We also consider a possible contribution from Misaligned Active Galactic Nuclei, and we find that, depending on the details of the model and its uncertainty, they can also provide a substantial contribution, partly degenerate with the SFG one. (abridged)