Gamma-ray Line Signal Research Articles

Heavy dark matter annihilation from effective field theory.

We formulate an effective field theory description for SU(2)_{L} triplet fermionic dark matter by combining nonrelativistic dark matter with gauge bosons in the soft-collinear effective theory. For a given dark matter mass, the annihilation cross section to line photons is obtained with 5% precision by simultaneously including Sommerfeld enhancement and the resummation of electroweak Sudakov logarithms at next-to-leading logarithmic order. Using these results, we present more accurate and precise predictions for the gamma-ray line signal from annihilation, updating both existing constraints and the reach of future experiments.

The spatial distribution of dark matter annihilation originating from a gamma-ray line signal

The GeV–TeV γ-ray line signal is the smoking gun signature of dark matter annihilation or decay. The detection of such a signal is one of the main targets of some space-based telescopes, including Fermi-LAT and the upcoming missions CALET, DAMPE and Gamma-400. An important feature of γ-ray line photons that originate from dark-matter-annihilation is that they are concentrated at the center of the Galaxy. So far, no reliable γ-ray line has been detected by Fermi-LAT, and the upper limits on the cross section of annihilation into γ-rays have been reported. We use these upper limits to estimate the “maximal” number of γ-ray line photons detectable for Fermi-LAT, DAMPE and Gamma-400, and then investigate the spatial distribution of these photons. We show that the center of the distribution will usually be offset from the Galactic center (Sgr A*) due to the limited statistics. Such a result is almost independent of models of the dark matter distribution, and will render the reconstruction of the dark matter distribution with the γ-ray line signal very challenging for foreseeable space-based detectors.

Hidden sector dark matter with global [formula omitted]-symmetry and Fermi-LAT 130 GeV γ-ray excess

We suggest a dark matter scenario which could contribute the possible anomaly observed by Fermi-LAT γ-ray space telescope. It is based on the model recently proposed by Weinberg. In our scenario the gamma-ray line signal comes from the fermionic dark matter (MDM=214 GeV) annihilating into two light scalars with mass around 500 MeV which in turn decay into two neutral pions. Finally the pions can decay into two 130 GeV photons. The strong constraint from the direct detection leaves only the channel of the dark matter annihilation into two light scalars for both the relic density and the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray line signal. The resulting gamma-ray spectrum is rather broad and does not fit to the data perfectly, but the data also show there may be fluctuation in the spectrum. There is no associated Z-boson or Higgs boson production contrary to most other works where the signal comes from the loops of charged particles. The annihilation into the other SM particles is highly suppressed due to the small mixing from the direct detection. Future experiments with more data will give more clues on the possible scenarios.

Searching for the continuum spectrum photons correlated to the 130 GeV gamma-ray line

Indications for a gamma-ray line(s) signal towards the Galactic center at an energy of about 130 GeV have been recently presented. While dark matter annihilations are a viable candidate for this signal, it is generally expected that such a flux would be correlated to a gamma-ray component with continuum energy spectrum due to dark matter pair annihilating into other Standard Model particles. We use the gamma-ray data from the inner 10 x 10 degree window to derive limits for a variety of DM annihilation final states. Extending the window of observation, we discuss bounds on the morphological shape of a dark matter signal associated to the line, applying both standard templates for the dark matter profile, such as an Einasto or a NFW profile, and introducing a new more general parametrization.

Dirac right-handed sneutrino dark matter and its signature in the gamma-ray lines

We show that a Dirac right-handed scalar neutrino can be weakly interacting massive particle in the neutrinophilic Higgs model. When the additional Higgs fields couple only to the leptonic sector through neutrino Yukawa couplings, the right number of relic density of dark matter can be obtained from thermal freeze-out of the dark matter annihilation into charged leptons and neutrinos. At present, this annihilation is suppressed by the velocity of dark matter. However one-loop annihilation cross section into $\gamma\gamma$ can be larger than that of the helicity suppressed annihilation into fermions, because relevant coupling constants are different. Hence, gamma-ray line signal which might have been observed in the Fermi-LAT is also able to be explained by its annihilation.

New estimates of the gamma-ray line emission of the Cygnus region from INTEGRAL/SPI observations

The Cygnus region harbours a huge complex of massive stars at a distance of 1.0-2.0kpc from us. About 170 O stars are distributed over several OB associations, among which the Cyg OB2 cluster is by far the largest with about 100-120 O stars. As a consequence of their successive nuclear-burning episodes, these massive stars inject large quantities of radioactive nuclei into the interstellar medium such as 26Al and 60Fe. The gamma-ray line signal from the latter is a solid tracer of ongoing nucleosynthesis. We want to compare the decay emission from the Cygnus region with predictions of recently improved stellar models. As a first step, we establish observational constraints upon the gamma-ray line emission from 26Al and 60Fe, with particular emphasis placed on separating the emission due to the Cygnus complex from the foreground and background mean Galactic contributions. We used the high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer INTEGRAL/SPI to analyse the 26Al and 60Fe decay signal from the Cygnus region. The weak gamma-ray line emissions at 1809 and 1173/1332keV have been characterised in terms of photometry, spectrometry, and source morphology. The 1809keV emission from Cygnus is centred on the position of the Cyg OB2 cluster and has a typical size of 9 degrees or more. The total 1809keV flux from the Cygnus region is (6.0 +/- 1.0) x10e-5 ph/cm2/s, but the flux really attributable to the Cygnus complex reduces to (3.9 +/- 1.1) x10e-5 ph/cm2/s. The 1809keV line centroid is agrees with expectations considering the direction and distance of the Cygnus complex, and the line width is consistent with typical motions of the interstellar medium. No decay emission from 60Fe has been observed from the Cygnus region and an upper limit of 1.6 x10e-5 ph/cm2/s was derived.