GeV Excess Research Articles

Revival of the Dark Matter Hypothesis for the Galactic Center Gamma-Ray Excess.

Statistical evidence has previously suggested that the galactic center GeV excess (GCE) originates largely from point sources, and not from annihilating dark matter. We examine the impact of unmodeled source populations on identifying the true origin of the GCE using non-Poissonian template fitting (NPTF) methods. In a proof-of-principle example with simulated data, we discover that unmodeled sources in the Fermi bubbles can lead to a dark matter signal being misattributed to point sources by the NPTF. We discover striking behavior consistent with a mismodeling effect in the real Fermi data, finding that large artificial injected dark matter signals are completely misattributed to point sources. Consequently, we conclude that dark matter may provide a dominant contribution to the GCE after all.

On the nature of radio filaments near the Galactic Centre

ABSTRACT We suggest that narrow, long radio filaments near the Galactic Centre arise as kinetic jets – streams of high-energy particles escaping from ram pressure confined pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe). The reconnection between the PWN and interstellar magnetic field allows pulsar wind particles to escape, creating long narrow features. They are the low-frequency analogues of kinetic jets seen around some fast-moving pulsars, such as The Guitar and The Lighthouse PWNe. The radio filaments trace a population of pulsars also responsible for the Fermi GeV excess produced by the Inverse Compton scattering by the pulsar wind particles. The magnetic flux tubes are stretched radially by the large-scale Galactic winds. In addition to PWNe accelerated particles can be injected at supernovae remnants. The model predicts variations of the structure of the largest filaments on scales of ∼dozens of years – smaller variations can occur on shorter time-scales. We also encourage targeted observations of the brightest sections of the filaments and of the related unresolved point sources in search of the powering PWNe and pulsars.

Inverse Compton emission from millisecond pulsars in the Galactic bulge

Analyses of Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope data have revealed a source of excess diffuse gamma rays towards the Galactic center that extends up to roughly $\pm$20 degrees in latitude. The leading theory postulates that this GeV excess is the aggregate emission from a large number of faint millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The electrons and positrons ($e^\pm$) injected by this population could produce detectable inverse-Compton (IC) emissions by up-scattering ambient photons to gamma-ray energies. In this work, we calculate such IC emissions using GALPROP. A triaxial three-dimensional model of the bulge stars obtained from a fit to infrared data is used as a tracer of the putative MSP population. This model is compared against one in which the MSPs are spatially distributed as a Navarro-Frenk-White squared profile. We show that the resulting spectra for both models are indistinguishable, but that their spatial morphologies have salient recognizable features. The IC component above $\sim$TeV energies carries information on the spatial morphology of the injected $e^\pm$. Such differences could potentially be used by future high-energy gamma-ray detectors such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array to provide a viable multiwavelength handle for the MSP origin of the GeV excess.

Searching for GeV gamma-ray emission from the bulge of M31

The three major large-scale, diffuse γ-ray structures of the Milky Way are the Galactic disk, a bulge-like GeV excess towards the Galactic center, and the Fermi bubble. Whether such structures can also be present in other normal galaxies remains an open question. M31, as the nearest massive normal galaxy, holds promise for spatially-resolving the γ-ray emission. Based on more than 8 years of Fermi-LAT observations, we use (1) disk, (2) bulge, and (3) disk-plus-bulge templates to model the spatial distribution of the γ-ray emission from M31. Among these, the disk-plus-bulge template delivers the best-fit, in which the bulge component has a TS value 25.7 and a photon-index of 2.57 ± 0.17, providing strong evidence for a centrally-concentrated γ-ray emission from M31, that is analogous to the Galactic center excess. The total 0.2–300 GeV γ-ray luminosity from this bulge component is (1.16 ± 0.14) × 1038 erg s−1, which would require ∼ 1.5 × 105 millisecond pulsars, if they were the dominant source. We also search for a Fermi bubble-like structure in M31 using the full dataset (pass8), but no significant evidence has been found. In addition, a likelihood analysis using only photons with the most accurate reconstructed direction (i.e., PSF3-only data) reveals a 4.8 σ point-like source located at ∼10 kpc to the northwest of the M31 disk, with a luminosity of (0.97 ± 0.27) × 1038 erg s−1 and a photon-index of 2.31 ± 0.18. Lacking a counterpart on the southeast side of the disk, the relation between this point-like source and a bubble-like structure remains elusive.

Evidence on the Orbital Modulated Gamma-Ray Emissions from the Redback Candidate 3FGL J2039.6–5618

Abstract Using 9.5 yr of Fermi Large Area Telescope data, we report the evidence on the orbital modulated gamma-ray emissions from the redback candidate 3FGL J2039.6–5618. We produced the folded light curve with the orbital period of ∼5.47 hr at a ∼4σ level. We also computed the gamma-ray spectra in two orbital phases corresponding to the inferior conjunction and the superior conjunction. We found that the <3 GeV excess in the spectrum of inferior conjunction can be modeled by the inverse Compton scattering between a relativistic pulsar wind and background soft photons of the companion star. The orbital modulation can also be explained by the evolving collision angle between the particles and photons in the same model. Through period searches by the Rayleigh test and the flux variability, we speculate that the orbital modulation is not detected after MJD ∼57,000. We propose a possible explanation in which the intrabinary shock is located closer to the pulsar so that the pulsar wind carries a smaller Lorentz factor. We estimated that the resultant inverse Compton component will be too soft and too weak to be observed.

Millisecond pulsars, TeV halos, and implications for the Galactic Center gamma-ray excess

Observations by HAWC indicate that many young pulsars (including Geminga and Monogem) are surrounded by spatially extended, multi-TeV emitting regions. It is not currently known, however, whether TeV emission is also produced by recycled, millisecond pulsars (MSPs). In this study, we perform a stacked analysis of 24 MSPs within HAWC's field-of-view, finding between 2.6-3.2 sigma evidence that these sources are, in fact, surrounded by TeV halos. The efficiency with which these MSPs produce TeV halos is similar to that exhibited by young pulsars. This result suggests that several dozen MSPs will ultimately be detectable by HAWC, including many "invisible" pulsars without radio beams oriented in our direction. The TeV halos of unresolved MSPs could also dominate the TeV-scale diffuse emission observed at high galactic latitudes. We also discuss the possibility that TeV and radio observations could be used to constrain the population of MSPs that is present in the inner Milky Way, thereby providing us with a new way to test the hypothesis that MSPs are responsible for the Galactic Center GeV excess.

The Fermi-LAT GeV excess as a tracer of stellar mass in the Galactic bulge

An anomalous emission component at energies of a few GeV and located towards the inner Galaxy is present in the Fermi-LAT data. It is known as the Fermi-LAT GeV excess. Using almost 8 years of data we reanalyze the characteristics of this excess with SkyFACT, a novel tool that combines image reconstruction with template fitting techniques. We find that an emission profile that traces stellar mass in the boxy and nuclear bulge provides the best description of the excess emission, providing strong circumstantial evidence that the excess is due to a stellar source population in the Galactic bulge. We find a luminosity to stellar mass ratio of $(2.1\pm 0.2)\times 10^{27} \mathrm{\,erg\,s^{-1}\,M_\odot^{-1}}$ for the boxy bulge, and of $(1.4\pm 0.6)\times 10^{27}\mathrm{\,erg\,s^{-1}\,M_\odot^{-1}}$ for the nuclear bulge. Stellar mass related templates are preferred over conventional DM profiles with high statistical significance.

Perspectives on the detection of supersymmetric Dark Matter

Up to now searches for Dark Matter (DM) detection have not been successful, either because our paradigm in howDMsignals should look like are wrong or the detector sensitivity is still too low in spite of the large progress made in recent years. We discuss both possibilities starting with what we know about DM from cosmology and why Supersymmetry provides such an interesting paradigm for cosmology and particle physics in order to appreciate what it means to give up this paradigm. In addition, we compare the predicted cross sections for direct and indirect DM detection with observations with emphasis on the latest developments. Especially, we discuss the possible origins of the two hotly debated candidates for a DM annihilation signal, namely the positron excess and the Fermi GeV excess, which are unfortunately incompatible with each other and more mundane astrophysical explanations exist.

Implications of the Fermi-LAT Pass 8 Galactic Center excess on supersymmetric dark matter

The Fermi Collaboration has recently updated their analysis of gamma rays from the center of the Galaxy. They reconfirm the presence of an unexplained emission feature which is most prominent in the region of 1–10 GeV, known as the Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE). Although the GCE is now firmly detected, an interpretation of this emission as a signal of self-annihilating dark matter (DM) particles is not unambiguously possible due to systematic effects in the gamma-ray modeling estimated in the Galactic Plane. In this paper we build a covariance matrix, collecting different systematic uncertainties investigated in the Fermi Collaboration's paper that affect the GCE spectrum. We show that models where part of the GCE is due to annihilating DM is still consistent with the new data. We also re-evaluate the parameter space regions of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) that can contribute dominantly to the GCE via neutralino DM annihilation. All recent constraints from DM direct detection experiments such as PICO, LUX, PandaX and Xenon1T, limits on the annihilation cross section from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the Large Hadron Collider limits are considered in this analysis. Due to a slight shift in the energy spectrum of the GC excess with respect to the previous Fermi analysis, and the recent limits from direct detection experiments, we find a slightly shifted parameter region of the MSSM, compared to our previous analysis, that is consistent with the GCE. Neutralinos with a mass between 85–220 GeV can describe the excess via annihilation into a pair of W-bosons or top quarks. Remarkably, there are models with low fine-tuning among the regions that we have found. The complete set of solutions will be probed by upcoming direct detection experiments and with dedicated searches in the upcoming data of the Large Hadron Collider.

Ruling out dark matter interpretation of the galactic GeV excess by gamma-ray data of galaxy clusters

Recently, some very tight constraints of annihilating dark matter have been obtained from gamma-ray data of the Milky Way and Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies. In this article, we report that there are two excellent galaxy clusters (A2877 and Fornax) which can provide interesting constraints for annihilating dark matter. The lower limits of the dark matter mass for the thermal relic annihilation cross section are 25 GeV, 6 GeV, 130 GeV and 100 GeV respectively for the e+e−, μ+μ−, τ+τ− and bbar{b} channels. For some configuration of our working assumptions, our results improve the Fermi-LAT upper limits of annihilation cross sections by a factor of 1.3 − 1.8 for wide ranges of dark matter mass for e+e−, μ+μ− and bbar{b} channels, and a factor of 1.2–1.8 for τ+τ− channel with dark matter mass ≤100 GeV. These limits basically rule out most of the existing popular dark matter interpretation of the GeV excess in the Milky Way.

Molecular clouds as origin of the Fermi gamma-ray GeV excess

The so-called "GeV-excess" of the diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission is studied with a spectral template fit based on energy spectra. The spectral templates can be obtained in a data-driven way from the gamma-ray data, which avoids the use of emissivity models to subtract the standardbackground processes from the data. Instead, one can determine these backgrounds simultaneously with any "signals" in any sky direction, including the Galactic disk and the Galactic center. Using the spectral template fit two hypothesis of the "GeV-excess" were tested: the dark matter (DM) hypothesis assuming the excess is caused by DM annihilation and the molecular cloud (MC) hypothesis assuming the "GeV-excess" is related to a depletion of gamma-rays below 2 GeV, as is directly observed in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). Both hypotheses provide acceptable fits, if one considers a limited field-of-view centered within 20$^\circ$ around the Galactic center and applies cuts on the energy range and/or excludes low latitudes, cuts typically applied by the proponents of the DM hypothesis. However, if one considers the whole gamma-ray sky and includes gamma-ray energies up to 100 GeV we find that the MC hypothesis is preferred over the DM hypothesis for several reasons: i) The MC hypothesis provides significantly better fits; ii) The morphology of the "GeV-excess" follows the morphology of the CO-maps, a tracer of MCs, i.e. there exists a strong "GeV-excess" in the Galactic disk also at large longitudes; iii) The massive CMZ with a rectangular field-of-view of $l \times b = 3.5^{\circ} \times 0.5^{\circ}$ shows the maximum of the energy flux per log bin in the diffuse gamma-ray spectrum at 2 GeV, i.e. the "GeV-excess", already in the raw data without any analysis. The rectangular profile contradicts the spherical morphology expected for DM annihilation.

Bouncing black holes in quantum gravity and the Fermi gamma-ray excess

Non-perturbative quantum-gravity effects can change the fate of black holes and make them bounce in a time scale shorter than the Hawking evaporation time. In this article, we show that this hypothesis can account for the GeV excess observed from the galactic center by the Fermi satellite. By carefully taking into account the secondary component due to the decay of unstable hadrons, we show that the model is fully self-consistent. This phenomenon presents a specific redshift-dependence that could allow to distinguish it from other astrophysical phenomena possibly contributing to the GeV excess.

Possible Dark Matter Annihilation Signal in the AMS-02 Antiproton Data.

Using the latest AMS-02 cosmic-ray antiproton flux data, we search for a potential dark matter annihilation signal. The background parameters about the propagation, source injection, and solar modulation are not assumed apriori but based on the results inferred from the recent B/C ratio and proton data measurements instead. The possible dark matter signal is incorporated into the model self-consistently under a Bayesian framework. Compared with the astrophysical background-only hypothesis, we find that a dark matter signal is favored. The rest mass of the dark matter particles is ∼20-80 GeV, and the velocity-averaged hadronic annihilation cross section is about (0.2-5)×10^{-26} cm^{3} s^{-1}, in agreement with that needed to account for the Galactic center GeV excess and/or the weak GeV emission from dwarf spheroidal galaxies Reticulum 2 and Tucana III. Tight constraints on the dark matter annihilation models are also set in a wide mass region.

The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter

Abstract The region around the Galactic Center (GC) is now well established to be brighter at energies of a few GeV than what is expected from conventional models of diffuse gamma-ray emission and catalogs of known gamma-ray sources. We study the GeV excess using 6.5 yr of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We characterize the uncertainty of the GC excess spectrum and morphology due to uncertainties in cosmic-ray source distributions and propagation, uncertainties in the distribution of interstellar gas in the Milky Way, and uncertainties due to a potential contribution from the Fermi bubbles. We also evaluate uncertainties in the excess properties due to resolved point sources of gamma rays. The GC is of particular interest, as it would be expected to have the brightest signal from annihilation of weakly interacting massive dark matter (DM) particles. However, control regions along the Galactic plane, where a DM signal is not expected, show excesses of similar amplitude relative to the local background. Based on the magnitude of the systematic uncertainties, we conservatively report upper limits for the annihilation cross-section as a function of particle mass and annihilation channel.

Low mass X-ray binaries in the Inner Galaxy: implications for millisecond pulsars and the GeV excess

If millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are responsible for the excess gamma-ray emission observed from the region surrounding the Galactic Center, the same region should also contain a large population of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). In this study, we compile and utilize a sizable catalog of LMXBs observed in the the Milky Way's globular cluster system and in the Inner Galaxy, as well as the gamma-ray emission observed from globular clusters, to estimate the flux of gamma rays predicted from MSPs in the Inner Galaxy. From this comparison, we conclude that only up to ∼ 4-23% of the observed gamma-ray excess is likely to originate from MSPs. This result is consistent with, and more robust than, previous estimates which utilized smaller samples of both globular clusters and LMXBs. If MSPs had been responsible for the entirety of the observed excess, INTEGRAL should have detected ∼ 103 LMXBs from within a 10̂ radius around the Galactic Center, whereas only 42 LMXBs (and 46 additional LMXB candidates) have been observed.

Augury of darkness: the low-mass dark Z\u2032 portal

Dirac fermion dark matter models with heavy Z′ mediators are subject to stringent constraints from spin-independent direct searches and from LHC bounds, cornering them to live near the Z′ resonance. Such constraints can be relaxed, however, by turning off the vector coupling to Standard Model fermions, thus weakening direct detection bounds, or by resorting to light Z′ masses, below the Z pole, to escape heavy resonance searches at the LHC. In this work we investigate both cases, as well as the applicability of our findings to Majorana dark matter. We derive collider bounds for light Z′ gauge bosons using the CLS method, spin-dependent scattering limits, as well as the spin-independent scattering rate arising from the evolution of couplings between the energy scale of the mediator mass and the nuclear energy scale, and indirect detection limits. We show that such scenarios are still rather constrained by data, and that near resonance they could accommodate the gamma-ray GeV excess in the Galactic center.

Searching for pulsars associated with the Fermi GeV excess

The Fermi Large Area Telescope has detected an extended region of GeV emission toward the Galactic Center that is currently thought to be powered by dark matter annihilation or a population of young and/or millisecond pulsars. In a test of the pulsar hypothesis, we have carried out an initial search of a 20 deg**2 area centered on the peak of the galactic center GeV excess. Candidate pulsars were identified as a compact, steep spectrum continuum radio source on interferometric images and followed with targeted single-dish pulsation searches. We report the discovery of the recycled pulsar PSR 1751-2737 with a spin period of 2.23 ms. PSR 1751-2737 appears to be an isolated recycled pulsar located within the disk of our Galaxy, and it is not part of the putative bulge population of pulsars that are thought to be responsible for the excess GeV emission. However, our initial success in this small pilot survey suggests that this hybrid method (i.e. wide-field interferometric imaging followed up with single dish pulsation searches) may be an efficient alternative strategy for testing whether a putative bulge population of pulsars is responsible for the GeV excess.

Bulk Higgs with a heavy diphoton signal

We consider scenarios of warped extra-dimensions with all matter fields in the bulk and in which both the hierarchy and the flavor puzzles of the Standard Model are addressed. The simplest extra dimensional extension of the Standard Model Higgs sector, i.e a 5D bulk Higgs doublet, can be a natural and simple explanation to the 750 GeV excess of diphotons hinted at the LHC, with the resonance responsible for the signal being the lightest CP odd excitation coming from the Higgs sector. No new matter content is invoked, the only new ingredient being the presence of (positive) brane localized kinetic terms associated to the 5D bulk Higgs, which allow to reduce the mass of the lightest CP odd Higgs excitation to 750 GeV. Production and decay of this resonance can naturally fit the observed signal when the mass scale of the rest of extradimensional resonances is of order 1 TeV.

750 GeV threshold to a new particle world

We show how an excess in the diphoton channel can be the effect of neither a resonance nor an end-point in a cascade decay, but rather of a threshold for virtual production of a pair of extra quarks, each with half of peak invariant mass, onsetting in both the $gg$-initiated production and the $\gamma\gamma$-induced decay of an off-shell $Z$ boson. For our analysis we consider as paradigmatic example the 750 GeV excess previously seen at the end of 2015 with the Run 2 data of the LHC but not confirmed with 2016 data.

A heavy scalar of mass 270 GeV and its possible connection to the 750 GeV excess

Run 1 of the LHC saw many interesting and surprising results, hinting at physics beyond the Standard Model. One of these is the search for lepton pairs in association with high missing energy, which produced a sizeable excess in its rate from both the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. While ATLAS and CMS interpret this using a supersymmetric model, we have shown that the excess can partly be explained by the existence of a new heavy scalar boson, H. This heavy scalar can decay to weak vector bosons and also Standard Model Higgs bosons and missing energy, making it a prime candidate in the search for high pT di-lepton pairs. An analysis is performed to determine the rate of di-lepton production with large missing energy for opposite sign pairs. We show that the heavy scalar produces a non-negligible rate, but cannot fully explain the excesses. For this reason, we look also to incorporating a full two Higgs doublet model to enhance this rate, where the pseudo-scalar A in the spectrum of new particles is considered to be a candidate for the Run 2 di-photon excess at 750 GeV.