Constraints on decaying dark matter from the extragalactic gamma-ray background

Open Access
Authors
Publication date 2015
Journal Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Article number 024
Volume | Issue number 2015 | 5
Number of pages 22
Organisations
  • Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Institute of Physics (IoP) - Institute for Theoretical Physics Amsterdam (ITFA)
Abstract
If dark matter is unstable and the mass is within GeV-TeV regime, its decays produce high-energy photons that give contribution to the extragalactic gamma-ray background (EGRB). We constrain dark matter decay by analyzing the 50-month EGRB data measured with Fermi satellite, for di ff erent decay channels motivated with several supersymmetric scenarios featuring R-parity violation. We adopt the latest astrophysical models for various source classes such as active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies, and take associated uncertainties properly into account. The lower limits for the lifetime are very stringent for a wide range of dark matter mass, excluding the lifetime shorter than 10(28) s for mass between a few hundred GeV and similar to 1 TeV, e.g., for b (b) over bar decay channel. Furthermore, most dark matter models that explain the anomalous positron excess are also excluded. These constraints are robust, being little dependent on astrophysical uncertainties, unlike other probes such as Galactic positrons or anti-protons.
Document type Article
Language English
Published at https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2015/05/024
Downloads
1502 02007v2 (Accepted author manuscript)
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