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      Constraints on WIMP and Sommerfeld-Enhanced Dark Matter Annihilation from HESS Observations of the Galactic Center

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          Abstract

          We examine the constraints on models of weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter from the recent observations of the Galactic center by the High Energy Spectroscopic System (HESS) telescope. We analyze canonical WIMP annihilation into Standard Model particle final states, including b/b-bar, t/t-bar and W^+ W^-. The constraints on annihilation into b/b-bar is within an order of magnitude of the thermal cross section at ~3 TeV, while the tau^+/tau^- channel is within a factor of ~2 of thermal. We also study constraints on Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation models, and find that the gamma-ray observational constraints here rule out all of the parameter space consistent with dark matter annihilation interpretations of PAMELA and the Fermi-LAT e^+/e^- spectrum, in specific classes of models, and strongly constrains these interpretations in other classes. The gamma-ray constraints we find are more constraining on these models, in many cases, than current relic density, cosmic microwave background, halo shape and naturalness constraints.

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          Most cited references22

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          Clumps and streams in the local dark matter distribution

          In cold dark matter cosmological models, structures form and grow by merging of smaller units. Numerical simulations have shown that such merging is incomplete; the inner cores of halos survive and orbit as "subhalos" within their hosts. Here we report a simulation that resolves such substructure even in the very inner regions of the Galactic halo. We find hundreds of very concentrated dark matter clumps surviving near the solar circle, as well as numerous cold streams. The simulation reveals the fractal nature of dark matter clustering: Isolated halos and subhalos contain the same relative amount of substructure and both have cuspy inner density profiles. The inner mass and phase-space densities of subhalos match those of recently discovered faint, dark matter-dominated dwarf satellite galaxies and the overall amount of substructure can explain the anomalous flux ratios seen in strong gravitational lenses. Subhalos boost gamma-ray production from dark matter annihilation, by factors of 4-15, relative to smooth galactic models. Local cosmic ray production is also enhanced, typically by a factor 1.4, but by more than a factor of ten in one percent of locations lying sufficiently close to a large subhalo. These estimates assume that gravitational effects of baryons on dark matter substructure are small.
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            Dark matter self-interactions and light force carriers

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              Exciting Dark Matter and the INTEGRAL/SPI 511 keV signal

              We propose a WIMP candidate with an ``excited state'' 1-2 MeV above the ground state, which may be collisionally excited and de-excites by e+e- pair emission. By converting its kinetic energy into pairs, such a particle could produce a substantial fraction of the 511 keV line observed by INTEGRAL/SPI in the inner Milky Way. Only a small fraction of the WIMPs have sufficient energy to excite, and that fraction drops sharply with galactocentric radius, naturally yielding a radial cutoff, as observed. Even if the scattering probability in the inner kpc is << 1% per Hubble time, enough power is available to produce the ~3x10^42 pairs per second observed in the Galactic bulge. We specify the parameters of a pseudo-Dirac fermion designed to explain the positron signal, and find that it annihilates chiefly to e+e- and freezes out with the correct relic density. We discuss possible observational consequences of this model.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                27 October 2011
                2012-01-03
                Article
                10.1088/1475-7516/2012/01/041
                1110.6151
                391d1df4-8381-4d42-a32f-91862f7a5432

                http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

                History
                Custom metadata
                JCAP 1201:041,2012
                19 pages, 5 figures; v3: Matches JCAP version; includes discussion of numerical studies of the density profile of MW-type halos, updated references and comparisons
                hep-ph astro-ph.CO astro-ph.GA astro-ph.HE

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