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In the past few decades, observations indicated that an unexplained high production rate of positrons (the strong 511 keV line) exists in the Milky Way center. By using the fact that a large amount of high density gas used to exist near the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-09-11 Man Ho Chan , Chung Hei Leung

We propose that a dark matter (DM) spike around the Galactic Center's (GC) supermassive black hole, Sgr A*, could account for most of the bulge's measured 511 keV line intensity while remaining cosmologically compatible. DM annihilation can…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-08 Pedro De la Torre Luque , Shyam Balaji , Malcolm Fairbairn , Filippo Sala , Joseph Silk

Observations of the INTEGRAL satellite revealed the presence of yet unexplained excess in the central region of the Galaxy at the energies around 511 keV. These gamma-rays are produced in the process of positron annihilation, the needed…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-11-15 Maxim S. Pshirkov

The signature of positron annihilation, namely the 511 keV $\gamma$-ray line, was first detected coming from the direction of the Galactic center in the 1970's, but the source of Galactic positrons still remains a puzzle. The measured flux…

The Galactic Center excess (GCE) of GeV $\gamma$ rays may hint at dark matter (DM), yet its origin remains debated. Motivated by this, we survey weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) models that can fit the GCE while satisfying…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2026-04-07 Chuiyang Kong , Mattia Di Mauro

With 20 years of INTEGRAL/SPI observations, Yoneda et al. (2025) created the most detailed map of the positron annihilation line at 511keV. While central bulge and extended disk are readily recognised in this map, several hotspots at high…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-21 Thomas Siegert , Hiroki Yoneda

Although the annihilation of positrons towards the Galactic centre was established more than 50 years ago through the detection of a 511 keV $\gamma$-ray line, the origin of the positrons remains unknown. The $\gamma$-ray line should be…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-27 Jürgen Knödlseder , Karim Sabri , Pierre Jean , Peter von Ballmoos , Gerry Skinner , Werner Collmar

The recent astronomical observation of GeV gamma-ray excess from the Galactic Center was suggested due to a $b \bar{b}$ mode in tens GeV WIMP (weakly interacting massive particle) pair annihilations, and this mode was also explored by the…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2015-10-14 Lian-Bao Jia

We discuss the possibility that the recent detection of 511 keV gamma rays from the galactic bulge, as observed by INTEGRAL, can be naturally explained by the supermassive very dense droplets (strangelets) of dark matter. These droplets are…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2009-11-10 David H. Oaknin , Ariel R. Zhitnitsky

We want to estimate whether the positrons produced by the beta plus decay of 26Al, 44Ti and 56Ni synthesised in massive stars and supernovae are sufficient to explain the 511 keV annihilation emission observed in our Galaxy. Such a…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2014-05-08 A. Alexis , P. Jean , P. Martin , K. Ferriere

The positron annihilation gamma-ray signal in the Milky Way (MW) shows a puzzling morphology: a very bright bulge and a very low surface-brightness disk. A coherent explanation of the positron origin, propagation through the Galaxy and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-10-26 Thomas Siegert , Roland Diehl , Aaron C. Vincent , Fabrizia Guglielmetti , Martin G. H. Krause , Celine Boehm

The discovery of a Standard Model-like Higgs boson and the hitherto absence of evidence for other new states may indicate that if WIMPs comprise cosmological dark matter, they are heavy compared to electroweak scale particles, $M \gg…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2014-06-06 Richard J. Hill , Mikhail P. Solon

An interesting strategy for indirect detection of Dark Matter comes through the amounts of electrons and positrons usually emitted by DM pair annihilation. The e+e- gyrating in the galactic magnetic field then produce secondary synchrotron…

Astrophysics · Physics 2010-01-08 Enrico Borriello , Alessandro Cuoco , Gennaro Miele

The first gamma-ray line originating from outside the solar system that was ever detected is the 511 keV emission from positron annihilation in the Galaxy. Despite 30 years of intense theoretical and observational investigation, the main…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-20 N. Prantzos , C. Boehm , A. M. Bykov , R. Diehl , K. Ferriere , N. Guessoum , P. Jean , J. Knoedlseder , A. Marcowith , I. V. Moskalenko , A. Strong , G. Weidenspointner

We present a measurement of the sky distribution of positronium (Ps) annihilation continuum emission obtained with the SPI spectrometer on board ESA's INTEGRAL observatory. The only sky region from which significant Ps continuum emission is…

The diffuse continuum emission from the Galactic plane in the energy range 18-1000 keV has been studied using 16 Ms of data from the SPI instrument on INTEGRAL. With such an exposure we can exploit the imaging properties of SPI to achieve a…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 A. W. Strong , R. Diehl , H. Halloin , V. Schoenfelder , L. Bouchet , P. Mandrou , F. Lebrun , R. Terrier

The EGRET telescope has identified a gamma-ray source at the Galactic center. We point out here that the spectral features of this source are compatible with the gamma-ray flux induced by pair annihilations of dark matter weakly interacting…

Our Galaxy hosts the annihilation of a few $\times 10^{43}$ low-energy positrons every second. Radioactive isotopes capable of supplying such positrons are synthesised in stars, stellar remnants, and supernovae. For decades, however, there…

A thermal relic WIMP remains a prime candidate for the nature of Dark Matter, particularly for the more poorly constrained case of a heavy ($\gtrsim$ 1 TeV) WIMP. The highest fluxes from WIMP annihilations are expected in the region of the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-12-13 Julia I. Djuvsland , Jim Hinton , Brian Reville

Weakly interacting slim particles (WISPs) can be produced in stars through the conversion of non-thermal photons generated in nuclear reactions. Previous studies have generally treated these sources only at the level of their primary…

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Physics 2026-05-25 Víctor Fonoll , Maurizio Giannotti , Giuseppe Lucente