Halo geometry and dark matter annihilation signal

Abstract

We study the impact of the halo shape and geometry on the expected weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter annihilation signal from the galactic center. As the halo profile in the innermost region is still poorly constrained, we focus on geometrical distortions and consider different density behaviors like flat cores, cusps, and spikes. We show that asphericity has a strong impact on the annihilation signal when the halo profile near the galactic center is flat, but becomes gradually less significant for cuspy profiles, and negligible in the presence of a central spike. However, the astrophysical factor is strongly dependent on the weakly interacting massive particle mass and annihilation cross section in the latter case.