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Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and the implications for WIMP constraintsJavier Coronado-Blázquez,
Miguel Sánchez-Conde,
Judit Pérez Romero,
Alejandra Aguirre-Santaella, 2022, original scientific article
Abstract: Spatial extension has been hailed as a “smoking gun” in the gamma-ray search of dark galactic subhalos, which would appear as unidentified sources for gamma-ray telescopes. In this work, we study the sensitivity of the Fermi-LAT to extended subhalos using simulated data based on a realistic sky model. We simulate spatial templates for a set of representative subhalos, whose parameters were derived from our previous work with N-body cosmological simulation data. We find that detecting an extended subhalo and finding an unequivocal signal of angular extension requires, respectively, a flux 2 to 10 times larger than in the case of a pointlike source. By studying a large grid of models, where parameters such as the WIMP mass, annihilation channel, or subhalo model are varied significantly, we obtain the response of the LAT as a function of the product of annihilation cross-section times the J-factor. Indeed, we show that spatial extension can be used as an additional “filter” to reject subhalos candidates among the pool of unidentified LAT sources, as well as a smoking gun for positive identification. For instance, typical angular extensions of a few tenths of a degree are expected for the considered scenarios. Finally, we also study the impact of the obtained LAT sensitivity to such extended subhalos on the achievable dark matter constraints, which are a few times less constraining than comparable point-source limits.
Keywords: dark matter, cosmic rays and astroparticles, gamma-ray astronomy, particle astrophysics, particle dark matter
Published in RUNG: 26.01.2023; Views: 1261; Downloads: 0
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