The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter

Ackermann M, Ajello M, Albert A, Atwood WB, Baldini L, Ballet J, Barbiellini G, Bastieri D, Bellazzini R, Bissaldi E, Blandford RD, Bloom ED, Bonino R, Bottacini E, Brandt TJ, Bregeon , Bruel P, Buehler R, Burnett TH, Cameron RA, Caputo R, Caragiulo M, Caraveo PA, Cavazzuti E, Cecchi C, Charles E, Chekhtman A, Chiang J, Chiappo A, Chiaro G, Ciprini S, Conrad J, Costanza F, Cuoco A, Cutini S, D'Ammando F, De Palmai F, Desiante R, Digel SW, Di Lalla N, Di Mauro M, Di Venere L, Drell PS, Favuzzi C, Fegan J, Ferrara EC, Fockes WB, Franckowiak A, Fukazawa Y, Funk S, Fusco P, Gargano F, Gaspanini D, Giglietto N, Giordano F, Giroletti M, Glanzman T, Gomez-Vargas GA, Green D, Grenier IA, Grove JE, Guillemot L, Guiriec S, Gustafsson M, Harding AK, Hays E, Hewitt JW, Horan D, Jogler T, Johnson AS, Kamae T, Kocevski D, Kuss M, La Mura G, Larsson S, Latronico L, Li J, Longo F, Loparco F, Lovellette MN, Lubrano P, Magill JD, Maldera S, Malyshev D, Manfreda A, Martin P, Mazziottam MN, Michelson PF, Mirabal N, Mitthumsiri W, Mizuno T, Moiseev AA, Monzani ME, Morselli A, Negro M, Nuss E, Ohsugi T, Orienti M, Orlando E, Ormes JF, Paneque D, Perkins JS, Persic M, Pesce-Rollins M, Piron F, Principe G, Raino S, Rando R, Razzano M, Razzaque S, Reimer A, Reimer O, Sanchez-Conde M, Sgro C, Simone D, Siskind EJ, Spada F, Spandrel G, Spinelli P, Suson DJ, Tajima H, Tanaka K, Thayer JB, Tibaldo L, Torres DF, Troja E, Uchiyama Y, Vianello G, Wood KS, Wood M, Zaharijas G, Zimmer S (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Book Volume: 840

Journal Issue: 1

DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa6cab

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.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY Germany (DE) Clemson University United States (USA) (US) Los Alamos National Laboratory United States (USA) (US) University of Pisa / Università di Pisa (UniPi) Italy (IT) National Institute for Nuclear Physics / Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) Italy (IT) Stanford University United States (USA) (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) United States (USA) (US) University of Montpellier / Université Montpellier France (FR) École Polytechnique - Université Paris-Saclay France (FR) University of Washington United States (USA) (US) George Mason University United States (USA) (US) ASI Science Data Center (ASDC) Italy (IT) National Institute for Astrophysics / Istituto Nazionale Astrofisica (INAF) Italy (IT) University of Orléans / Université d'Orléans France (FR) University of Padua / Universita degli Studi di Padova Italy (IT) University of Maryland United States (USA) (US) University of California Santa Cruz United States (USA) (US) Commissariat à l'énergie atomique France (FR) Hiroshima University / 広島大学 Japan (JP) Stockholm University / Stockholms universitet Sweden (SE) Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Chile (CL) U.S. Naval Research Laboratory United States (USA) (US) Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Germany (DE) University of North Florida (UNF) United States (USA) (US) University of Tokyo Japan (JP) AlbaNova University Centre / Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan AlbaNova Universitetscentrum Sweden (SE) Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) Spain (ES) Mahidol University / มหาวิทยาลัยมหิดล Thailand (TH) University of Denver United States (USA) (US) NYCB Real-Time Computing, Inc. United States (USA) (US) Purdue University Northwest / Purdue University Calumet United States (USA) (US) National Center for Scientific Research / Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) France (FR) Max-Planck-Institut für Physik (Werner-Heisenberg-Institut, MPP) / Max Planck Institute for Physics Germany (DE) University of Johannesburg South Africa (ZA) Rikkyo University / 立教大学 Japan (JP) Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) / Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics Germany (DE) University of Geneva / Université de Genève (UNIGE) Switzerland (CH)

How to cite

APA:

Ackermann, M., Ajello, M., Albert, A., Atwood, W.B., Baldini, L., Ballet, J.,... Zimmer, S. (2017). The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter. Astrophysical Journal, 840(1). https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa6cab

MLA:

Ackermann, Markus, et al. "The Fermi Galactic Center GeV Excess and Implications for Dark Matter." Astrophysical Journal 840.1 (2017).

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