English

Tentative observation of a gamma-ray line at the Fermi LAT

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2015-06-11 v1 High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Using 43 months of public gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, we find in regions close to the Galactic center at energies of 130 GeV a 4.6 sigma excess that is not inconsistent with a gamma-ray line from dark matter annihilation. When taking into account the look-elsewhere effect, the significance of the observed signature is 3.2 sigma. If interpreted in terms of dark matter particles annihilating into a photon pair, the observations imply a partial annihilation cross-section of about 10^-27 cm^3s^-1 and a dark matter mass around 130 GeV. We review aspects of the statistical analysis and comment on possible instrumental indications.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1210.3013,
  title  = {Tentative observation of a gamma-ray line at the Fermi LAT},
  author = {Christoph Weniger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.3013},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

4 pages, 5 figures, Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2012)