Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Search for Signatures of Dark Matter Annihilation in the Galactic Center with HAWC

R. Alfaro, C. Alvarez, A. Andrés, E. Anita-Rangel, M. Araya, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, D. Avila Rojas, H. A. Ayala Solares, R. Babu, P. Bangale, A. Bernal, K. S. Caballero-Mora, T. Capistrán, A. Carramiñana, F. Carreón, S. Casanova, A. L. Colmenero-Cesar, U. Cotti, J. Cotzomi, S. Coutiño de León, E. De la Fuente, D. Depaoli, P. Desiati, N. Di Lalla, R. Diaz Hernandez, B. L. Dingus, M. A. DuVernois, J. C. Díaz-Vélez, K. Engel, T. Ergin, C. Espinoza, K. Fang, N. Fraija, S. Fraija, J. A. Garcéa-González, F. Garfias, N. Ghosh, H. Goksu, A. Gonzalez Muñoz, M. M. González, J. A. González, J. A. Goodman, S. Groetsch, J. Gyeong, J. P. Harding, S. Hernández-Cadena, I. Herzog, J. Hinton, D. Huang, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla, P. Hüntemeyer, A. Iriarte, S. Kaufmann, D. Kieda, A. Lara, K. Leavitt, W. H. Lee, J. Lee, H. León Vargas, J. T. Linnemann, A. L. Longinotti, G. Luis-Raya, K. Malone, O. Martinez, J. Martínez-Castro, H. Martínez-Huerta, J. A. Matthews, J. McEnery, P. Miranda-Romagnoli, P. E. Mirón-Enriquez, J. A. Montes, J. A. Morales-Soto, E. Moreno, M. Mostafá, M. Najafi, A. Nayerhoda, L. Nellen, M. U. Nisa, R. Noriega-Papaqui, N. Omodei, M. Osorio-Archila, E. Ponce, Y. Pérez Araujo, E. G. Pérez-Pérez, C. D. Rho, A. Rodriguez Parra, D. Rosa-González, M. Roth, H. Salazar, D. Salazar-Gallegos, A. Sandoval, M. Schneider, J. Serna-Franco, A. J. Smith, Y. Son, R. W. Springer, O. Tibolla, K. Tollefson, I. Torres, R. Torres-Escobedo, R. Turner, F. Ureña-Mena, E. Varela, L. Villaseñor, X. Wang, Z. Wang, I. J. Watson, H. Wu, S. Yu, S. Yun-Cárcamo, H. Zhou, C. de León

Abstract

We conduct an indirect dark matter (DM) search in the Galactic Center, focusing on a square region within $\pm 9^{\circ}$ in Galactic longitude and latutide, using 2,865 days of data ($\sim$8 years) from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. We explore DM particles within the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles framework with masses from 1 TeV to 10 PeV. Analyzing three annihilation channels ($b\bar{b}$, $τ^{+}τ^{-}$, $W^{+}W^{-}$) and three density profiles (Navarro-Frenk-White, Einasto, Burkert), we find no significant excess and set 95\% confidence-level upper limits on the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section. Our results provide the first constraints on DM particles well above 100 TeV using gamma-ray data from the Galactic Center, with the strongest limits $\mathcal{O}(10^{-24})$~cm$^{3}$/s, from the $τ^{+}τ^{-}$ channel and the Einasto profile.

Search for Signatures of Dark Matter Annihilation in the Galactic Center with HAWC

Abstract

We conduct an indirect dark matter (DM) search in the Galactic Center, focusing on a square region within in Galactic longitude and latutide, using 2,865 days of data (8 years) from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. We explore DM particles within the Weakly Interacting Massive Particles framework with masses from 1 TeV to 10 PeV. Analyzing three annihilation channels (, , ) and three density profiles (Navarro-Frenk-White, Einasto, Burkert), we find no significant excess and set 95\% confidence-level upper limits on the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section. Our results provide the first constraints on DM particles well above 100 TeV using gamma-ray data from the Galactic Center, with the strongest limits ~cm/s, from the channel and the Einasto profile.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 5 sections, 6 equations, 6 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Density profiles for the Galactic Center and $J$-factor computation in the regions of interest
  2. Computation of upper limits
  3. Computation of expected limits and exclusion bands
  4. Systematic uncertainties
  5. NFW and Burkert profile

Figures (6)

  • Figure 1: Significance map of the region of interest used for this analysis. The significance is defined as $\sqrt{\text{TS}}$. The labels indicate very-high-energy gamma-ray sources. The green rectangle and circle outline the masks. The bottom right region is the end of HAWC's field of view ($\sim$56$^{\circ}$ zenith angle) and is excluded from the likelihood fit. Color available online.
  • Figure 1: The three DM density profiles considered in this analysis: NFW (blue), Einasto (red), and Burkert (yellow). It is worth noting that the Burkert profile features a significantly more flat, low-density center ("cored") DM distribution, resulting in lower central densities at the GC compared to the cusped NFW and Einasto profiles. The dash-dotted line marks the distance equivalent to the width of the Galactic plane mask (1.0$^{\circ}$). The dashed line shows the distance from Earth to the GC.
  • Figure 2: Results assuming an Einasto density profile. Upper left: best-fit $\Delta$TS for each annihilation channel (background and signal vs background-only model). Upper right, lower left, lower right: containment bands for the 1 and 2$\sigma$ expected limits compared to the observed upper limit at the 95% CL for the channels: $b\bar{b}$, $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$, and $W^{+}W^{-}$, respectively. Color version online.
  • Figure 2: Best-fit $\Delta$TS for each annihilation channel (background and signal vs background-only model) assuming the left NFW and right Burkert density profiles.
  • Figure 3: Comparison of all channels. The IceCube limits (dotted lines), originally derived assuming an NFW profile PhysRevD.108.102004, have been rescaled to Einasto by a factor of 0.45. Also shown are HAWC ("Pass 4’’; dashed lines) albert2023optimized and H.E.S.S. limits abdalla2022search (dash-dotted lines). Color version online.
  • ...and 1 more figures