English

Green Bank Telescope Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Segue I

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-07-15 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We use a non-detection in ν=1.4\nu = 1.4\,GHz Green Bank Telescope observations of the ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy Segue I, which could be immersed in a non-negligible halo magnetic field of the Milky Way, to place bounds on particle dark matter properties. We model the galaxy using an Einasto dark matter profile, and compute the expected synchrotron flux from dark matter annihilation as a function of the magnetic field strength BB, diffusion coefficient D0D_0, and particle mass mχm_\chi for different annihilation channels. The data strongly disfavor annihilations to e+ee^+e^- for mχ50m_\chi \lesssim 50\,GeV, but are not sensitive to the bbˉb \bar b channel. Adopting a fiducial B2μB \sim 2\,\muG inferred from Segue I's proximity to the Milky Way, our models of annihilation to τ+τ\tau^+\tau^- with mχ=30m_\chi = 30\,GeV require an intermediate value of D0D_0 for consistency with the data. The most compelling limits are obtained for WIMP annihilation to μ+μ\mu^+\mu^-: we exclude mχ30m_\chi \lesssim 30\,GeVμ+μ\,\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^- at 95% confidence, unless D0D_0 exceeds the Milky Way value or BB is significantly smaller than we have assumed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1507.03589,
  title  = {Green Bank Telescope Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Segue I},
  author = {Aravind Natarajan and James E. Aguirre and Kristine Spekkens and Brian S. Mason},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1507.03589},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

9 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRD