Gamma Rays from Ultracompact Primordial Dark Matter Minihalos

Abstract

Ultracompact minihalos have been proposed as a new class of dark matter structure. They would be produced by phase transitions in the early Universe or features in the inflaton potential, and constitute nonbaryonic massive compact halo objects today. We examine the prospects of detecting these minihalos in gamma rays if dark matter can self-annihilate. We compute present-day fluxes from minihalos produced in the e{+}e{-} annihilation epoch and the QCD and electroweak phase transitions. Even at a distance of 4 kpc, minihalos from the e{+}e{-} epoch would be eminently detectable today by the Fermi satellite or air Cerenkov telescopes, or even in archival EGRET data. Within 2 kpc, they would appear as extended sources to Fermi. At 4 kpc, minihalos from the QCD transition have similar predicted fluxes to dwarf spheroidal galaxies, so might also be detectable by present or upcoming experiments.