Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to dark subhalos

Coronado-Blázquez, Javier; Doro, M.; Aguirre-Santaella, Alejandra

doi:10.1016/j.dark.2021.100845

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…An analysis of spatial extension in the latest gamma-ray catalogs is already ongoing and will be presented elsewhere. This additional DM filter, now robustly defined, together with new generation instruments such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array [49] or AMEGO [88], will be able to explore the whole WIMP range. CTA will be specially sensitive to large, TeV WIMP masses and will also possess a superb angular resolution of about 0.03 • in the TeV energy range, while AMEGO will be sensitive to lower energies than the LAT with 5 times better angular resolution, therefore ideal for this extension search as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are perfect candidates to perform a search for Galactic dark subhalos, as WIMPs may be annihilating within them, appearing as unIDs in the LAT sky. Many works have already used these targets for indirect DM detection [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49]. In our previous works [35,50], which we will refer to as Paper I and Paper II respectively, starting from a total of 1235 unIDs in the latest LAT point-source catalogs, we applied a series of filters according to the expected emission from dark subhalo annihilation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and implications for WIMP constraints

Coronado-Blazquez,

Sanchez-Conde,

Perez-Romero

et al. 2022

Preprint

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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 point-like 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 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.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and implications for WIMP constraints

Coronado-Blazquez,

Sanchez-Conde,

Perez-Romero

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…A second approach is to head for serendipitous discovery of dark subhalos in the field of view of IACTs. While no DM subhalo candidate has been detected with IACTs so far, projections have been made for discovery with the HAWC observatory [113] and the future Cherenkov telescope array (CTA) during large-scale surveys [89,128,129] or serendipitously in the field of view of other targets [129].…”

Section: Dark Subhalosmentioning

confidence: 99%

TeV Dark Matter Searches in the Extragalactic Gamma-ray Sky

Hütten

Kerszberg

2022

Galaxies

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High-energetic gamma rays from astrophysical targets constitute a unique probe for annihilation or decay of heavy particle dark matter (DM). After several decades, diverse null detections have resulted in strong constraints for DM particle masses up to the TeV scale. While the gamma-ray signature is expected to be universal from various targets, uncertainties of astrophysical origin strongly affect and weaken the limits. At the same time, spurious signals may originate from non-DM related processes. The many gamma-ray targets in the extragalactic sky being searched for DM play a crucial role to keep these uncertainties under control and to ultimately achieve an unambiguous DM detection. Lately, a large progress has been made in combined analyses of TeV DM candidates towards different targets by using data from various instruments and over a wide range of gamma-ray energies. These approaches not only resulted in an optimal exploitation of existing data and an improved sensitivity, but also helped to level out target- and instrument-related uncertainties. This review gathers all searches in the extragalactic sky performed so far with the space-borne Fermi-Large Area Telescope, the ground-based imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, and the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-Ray Observatory (HAWC). We discuss the different target classes and provide a complete list of all analyses so far.

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“…Studying the annihilation luminosity of galactic subhaloes is essential to understand their potential as targets for gamma ray searches (Ackermann et al 2012;Strigari 2013;Hooper & Witte 2017). For instance, current DM constraints obtained from the scrutiny of unidentified gamma-ray sources in search of potential subhaloes with no visible counterparts depend, in the first place, on the number of detectable subhaloes predicted from a combination of simulations and instrumental sensitivity (Coronado-Blázquez et al 2019a;Coronado-Blázquez et al 2021. More specifically, these DM constraints would be overly optimistic if a significant fraction of subhaloes in the solar vicinity disrupt or lose a significant fraction of their luminosity.…”

Section: Dm Annihilation Luminositymentioning

confidence: 99%

Shedding light on low-mass subhalo survival and annihilation luminosity with numerical simulations

Aguirre-Santaella¹,

Ogiya²,

Stücker³

et al. 2022

Preprint

Self Cite

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In this work, we carry out a suite of specially-designed numerical simulations to shed further light on dark matter (DM) subhalo survival at mass scales relevant for gamma-ray DM searches, a topic subject to intense debate nowadays. Specifically, we have developed and employed an improved version of DASH, a GPU 𝑁-body code, to study the evolution of low-mass subhaloes inside a Milky Way-like halo with unprecedented accuracy, reaching solar-mass and sub-parsec resolution in our simulations. We simulate subhaloes with varying mass, concentration, and orbital properties, and consider the effect of the gravitational potential of the Milky Way galaxy itself. More specifically, we analyze the evolution of both the bound mass fraction and annihilation luminosity of subhaloes, finding that most subhaloes survive until present time, even though in some cases they lose more than 99% of their mass at accretion. Baryons in the host induce a much more severe mass loss, especially when the subhalo orbit is more parallel to the galactic disk. Many of these subhaloes cross the solar galactocentric radius, thus making it easier to detect their annihilation fluxes from Earth. We find subhaloes orbiting a DM-only halo with a pericentre in the solar vicinity to lose 70-90% of their initial annihilation luminosity at redshift zero, which increases up to 99% when baryons are also included in the host. We find a strong relation between subhalo's mass loss and the effective tidal field at pericentre. Indeed, much of the dependence on concentration, orbital parameters, host potential and baryonic components can be explained through this single parameter. In addition to shedding light on the survival of low-mass galactic subhaloes, our results can provide detailed predictions that will aid current and future quests for the nature of DM.

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Sensitivity of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to dark subhalos

Cited by 12 publications

References 76 publications

Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and implications for WIMP constraints

Spatial extension of dark subhalos as seen by Fermi-LAT and implications for WIMP constraints

TeV Dark Matter Searches in the Extragalactic Gamma-ray Sky

Shedding light on low-mass subhalo survival and annihilation luminosity with numerical simulations

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