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Multi-messenger constraints and pressure from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs
(2013)
Despite striking evidence for the existence of dark matter from astrophysical observations, dark matter has still escaped any direct or indirect detection until today. Therefore a proof for its existence and the revelation of its nature belongs to one of the most intriguing challenges of nowadays cosmology and particle physics. The present work tries to investigate the nature of dark matter through indirect signatures from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs in two different ways, pressure from dark matter annihilation and multi-messenger constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross-section. We focus on dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs and adopt a model-independent approach, where all the electrons and positrons are injected with the same initial energy E_0 ~ m_dm*c^2. The propagation of these particles is determined by solving the diffusion-loss equation, considering inverse Compton scattering, synchrotron radiation, Coulomb collisions, bremsstrahlung, and ionization. The first part of this work, focusing on pressure from dark matter annihilation, demonstrates that dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs may affect the observed rotation curve by a significant amount. The injection rate of this calculation is constrained by INTEGRAL, Fermi, and H.E.S.S. data. The pressure of the relativistic electron-positron gas is computed from the energy spectrum predicted by the diffusion-loss equation. For values of the gas density and magnetic field that are representative of the Milky Way, it is estimated that the pressure gradients are strong enough to balance gravity in the central parts if E_0 < 1 GeV. The exact value depends somewhat on the astrophysical parameters, and it changes dramatically with the slope of the dark matter density profile. For very steep slopes, as those expected from adiabatic contraction, the rotation curves of spiral galaxies would be affected on kiloparsec scales for most values of E_0. By comparing the predicted rotation curves with observations of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies, we show that the pressure from dark matter annihilation may improve the agreement between theory and observations in some cases, but it also imposes severe constraints on the model parameters (most notably, the inner slope of the halo density profile, as well as the mass and the annihilation cross-section of dark matter particles into electron-positron pairs). In the second part, upper limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs are obtained by combining observed data at different wavelengths (from Haslam, WMAP, and Fermi all-sky intensity maps) with recent measurements of the electron and positron spectra in the solar neighbourhood by PAMELA, Fermi, and H.E.S.S.. We consider synchrotron emission in the radio and microwave bands, as well as inverse Compton scattering and final-state radiation at gamma-ray energies. For most values of the model parameters, the tightest constraints are imposed by the local positron spectrum and synchrotron emission from the central regions of the Galaxy. According to our results, the annihilation cross-section should not be higher than the canonical value for a thermal relic if the mass of the dark matter candidate is smaller than a few GeV. In addition, we also derive a stringent upper limit on the inner logarithmic slope α of the density profile of the Milky Way dark matter halo (α < 1 if m_dm < 5 GeV, α < 1.3 if m_dm < 100 GeV and α < 1.5 if m_dm < 2 TeV) assuming a dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs (σv) = 3*10^−26 cm^3 s^−1, as predicted for thermal relics from the big bang.
It is well known that satellite galaxies are not isotropically distributed among their host galaxies as suggested by most interpretations of the Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. One type of anisotropy recently detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (and seen when examining the distribution of satellites in the Local Group and in the Centaurus group) is a tendency to be so-called lopsided. Namely, in pairs of galaxies (like Andromeda and the Milky Way) the satellites are more likely to inhabit the region in between the pair, rather than on opposing sides. Although recent studies found a similar set-up when comparing pairs of galaxies in ΛCDM simulations indicating that such a set-up is not inconsistent with ΛCDM, the origin has yet to be explained. Here we examine the origin of such lopsided set-ups by first identifying such distributions in pairs of galaxies in numerical cosmological simulations, and then tracking back the orbital trajectories of satellites (which at z = 0 display the effect). We report two main results: first, the lopsided distribution was stronger in the past and weakens towards z = 0. Secondly, the weakening of the signal is due to the interaction of satellite galaxies with the pair. Finally, we show that the z = 0 signal is driven primarily by satellites that are on first approach, who have yet to experience a ‘flyby’. This suggests that the signal seen in the observations is also dominated by dynamically young accretion events.
We use high-resolution hydrodynamical simulation to test the difference of halo properties in cold dark matter (CDM) and a self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) scenario with a constant cross-section of sigma(T)/m(x) = 1 cm(2) g(-1). We find that the interplay between dark matter self-interaction and baryonic physics induces a complex evolution of the halo properties, which depends on the halo mass and morphological type, as well as on the halo mass accretion history. While high-mass haloes, selected as analogues of early-type galaxies, show cored profiles in the SIDM run, systems of intermediate mass and with a significant disc component can develop a profile that is similar or cuspier than in CDM. The final properties of SIDM haloes - measured at z = 0.2 - correlate with the halo concentration and formation time, suggesting that the differences between different systems are due to the fact that we are observing the impact of self-interaction. We also search for signatures of SIDM in the lensing signal of the main haloes and find hints of potential differences in the distribution of Einstein radii, which suggests that future wide-field survey might be able to distinguish between CDM and SIDM models on this basis. Finally, we find that the subhalo abundances are not altered in the adopted SIDM model with respect to CDM.