Issue |
A&A
Volume 444, Number 1, December II 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 51 - 67 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20053726 | |
Published online | 21 November 2005 |
EGRET excess of diffuse galactic gamma rays as tracer of dark matter
1
Institut für Experimentelle Kernphysik, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), PO Box 6980, 76128 Karlsruhe, Germany e-mail: Wim.de.Boer@cern.ch; [deboer;sander;zhukov]@ekp.uni-karlsruhe.de
2
Bogoliubov Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia e-mail: [gladysh;kazakovd]@theor.jinr.ru
3
Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, 117218, 25 B. Cheremushkinskaya, Moscow, Russia
Received:
29
June
2005
Accepted:
17
August
2005
The public data from the EGRET space telescope on diffuse
Galactic gamma rays in the energy range from 0.1 to 10 GeV are
reanalyzed with the purpose of searching for signals of Dark Matter
annihilation (DMA). The analysis confirms the previously observed
excess for energies above 1 GeV in comparison with the expectations
from conventional Galactic models. In addition, the excess was found
to show all the key features of a signal from Dark Matter
Annihilation (DMA): a) the excess is observable in all sky
directions and has the same shape everywhere, thus pointing to a
common source; b) the shape corresponds to the expected spectrum of
the annihilation of non-relativistic massive particles into – among
others – neutral mesons, which decay into photons. From the
energy spectrum of the excess we deduce a WIMP mass between 50 and
100 GeV, while from the intensity of the excess in all sky
directions the shape of the halo could be reconstructed. The DM halo
is consistent with an almost spherical isothermal profile with
substructure in the Galactic plane in the form of toroidal rings at
4 and 14 kpc from the center. These rings lead to a peculiar shape
of the rotation curve, in agreement with the data, which proves that
the EGRET excess traces the Dark Matter.
Key words: gamma rays: observations / gamma rays: theory / cosmology: diffuse radiation / Galaxy: structure / Galaxy: halo / cosmology: dark matter
© ESO, 2005
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