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DOE OSTI2012

DARK MATTER AS AN ACTIVE GRAVITATIONAL AGENT IN CLOUD COMPLEXES

We study the effect that the dark matter background (DMB) has on the gravitational energy content and, in general, on the star formation efficiency (SFE) of a molecular cloud (MC). We first analyze the effect that a dark matter halo, described by the Navarro-Frenk-White density profile, has on the energy budget of a spherical, homogeneous cloud located at different distances from the halo center. We found that MCs located in the innermost regions of a massive galaxy can feel a contraction force greater than their self-gravity due to the incorporation of the potential of the galaxy's dark matter halo. We also calculated analytically the gravitational perturbation that an MC produces over a uniform DMB (uniform at the scales of an MC) and how this perturbation will affect the evolution of the MC itself. The study shows that the star formation in an MC will be considerably enhanced if the cloud is located in a dense and low velocity dark matter environment. We confirm our results by measuring the SFE in numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of MCs within different DMBs. Our study indicates that there are situations where the dark matter's gravitational contribution to the evolution of the MCs should not be neglected.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

CONSTRAINTS ON DARK MATTER ANNIHILATION IN CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES FROM DIFFUSE RADIO EMISSION

Annihilation of dark matter can result in the production of stable Standard Model particles including electrons and positrons that, in the presence of magnetic fields, lose energy via synchrotron radiation, observable as radio emission. Galaxy clusters are excellent targets to search for or to constrain the rate of dark matter annihilation, as they are both massive and dark matter dominated. In this study, we place limits on dark matter annihilation in a sample of nearby clusters using upper limits on the diffuse radio emission, low levels of observed diffuse emission, or detections of radio mini-halos. We find that the strongest limits on the annihilation cross section are better than limits derived from the non-detection of clusters in the gamma-ray band by a factor of {approx}3 or more when the same annihilation channel and substructure model, but different best-case clusters, are compared. The limits on the cross section depend on the assumed amount of substructure, varying by as much as two orders of magnitude for increasingly optimistic substructure models as compared to a smooth Navarro-Frenk-White profile. In our most optimistic case, using the results of the Phoenix Project, we find that the derived limits reach below the thermal relic cross section of 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -26} cm{sup 3} s{sup -1} for dark matter masses as large as 400 GeV, for the b b-bar annihilation channel. We discuss uncertainties due to the limited available data on the magnetic field structure of individual clusters. We also report the discovery of diffuse radio emission from the central 30-40 kpc regions of the groups M49 and NGC 4636.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Dusty supernovae running the thermodynamics of the matter reinserted within young and massive super stellar clusters

Following the observational and theoretical evidence that points at core-collapse supernovae (SNe) as major producers of dust, here we calculate the hydrodynamics of the matter reinserted within young and massive super stellar clusters under the assumption of gas and dust radiative cooling. The large SN rate expected in massive clusters allows for a continuous replenishment of dust immersed in the high temperature thermalized reinserted matter and warrants a stationary presence of dust within the cluster volume during the type II SN era. We first show that such a balance determines the range of the dust-to-gas-mass ratio, and thus the dust cooling law. We then search for the critical line that separates stationary cluster winds from the bimodal cases in the cluster mechanical luminosity (or cluster mass) versus cluster size parameter space. In the latter, strong radiative cooling reduces considerably the cluster wind mechanical energy output and affects particularly the cluster central regions, leading to frequent thermal instabilities that diminish the pressure and inhibit the exit of the reinserted matter. Instead, matter accumulates there and is expected to eventually lead to gravitational instabilities and to further stellar formation with the matter reinserted by former massive stars. The main outcome of the calculations is that the critical line is almost two orders of magnitude or more, depending on the assumed value of V {sub A∞}, lower than when only gas radiative cooling is applied. And thus, many massive clusters are predicted to enter the bimodal regime.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

On physical scales of dark matter halos

It is common practice to describe formal size and mass scales of dark matter halos as spherical overdensities with respect to an evolving density threshold. Here, we critically investigate the evolutionary effects of several such commonly used definitions and compare them to the halo evolution within fixed physical scales as well as to the evolution of other intrinsic physical properties of dark matter halos. It is shown that, in general, the traditional way of characterizing sizes and masses of halos dramatically overpredicts the degree of evolution in the last 10 Gyr, especially for low-mass halos. This pseudo-evolution leads to the illusion of growth even though there are no major changes within fixed physical scales. Such formal size definitions also serve as proxies for the virialized region of a halo in the literature. In general, those spherical overdensity scales do not coincide with the virialized region. A physically more precise nomenclature would be to simply characterize them by their very definition instead of calling such formal size and mass definitions 'virial'. In general, we find a discrepancy between the evolution of the underlying physical structure of dark matter halos seen in cosmological structure formation simulations and pseudo-evolving formal virial quantities. We question the importance of the role of formal virial quantities currently ubiquitously used in descriptions, models, and relations that involve properties of dark matter structures. Concepts and relations based on pseudo-evolving formal virial quantities do not properly reflect the actual evolution of dark matter halos and lead to an inaccurate picture of the physical evolution of our universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

THE BLACK HOLE–DARK MATTER HALO CONNECTION

We explore the connection between the central supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galaxies and the dark matter halo through the relation between the masses of the SMBHs and the maximum circular velocities of the host galaxies, as well as the relationship between stellar velocity dispersion of the spheroidal component and the circular velocity. Our assumption here is that the circular velocity is a proxy for the mass of the dark matter halo. We rely on a heterogeneous sample containing galaxies of all types. The only requirement is that the galaxy has a direct measurement of the mass of its SMBH and a direct measurement of its circular velocity and its velocity dispersion. Previous studies have analyzed the connection between the SMBH and dark matter halo through the relationship between the circular velocity and the bulge velocity dispersion, with the assumption that the bulge velocity dispersion stands in for the mass of the SMBH, via the well-established SMBH mass–bulge velocity dispersion relation. Using intermediate relations may be misleading when one is studying them to decipher the active ingredients of galaxy formation and evolution. We believe that our approach will provide a more direct probe of the SMBH and the dark matter halo connection. We find that the correlation between the mass of SMBHs and the circular velocities of the host galaxies is extremely weak, leading us to state the dark matter halo may not play a major role in regulating the black hole growth in the present Universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Stars, gas, and dark matter in the solar neighborhood

We reanalyze data on the surface densities and vertical distribution of baryonic matter in the solar neighborhood and tabulate the results. We find a local total surface density of M dwarfs of 17.3±2.3 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}, whcih is significantly higher than previous values. Our result for the total local surface density of visible stars (main-sequence stars and giants), 27.0±2.7 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}, is close to previous estimates due to a cancellation of opposing effects: more mass in M dwarfs, less mass in the others. The total local surface density in white dwarfs is 4.9±0.6 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}; in brown dwarfs, it is ∼1.2 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}, but with considerable uncertainty. We find that the total local surface density of stars and stellar remnants is 33.4±3 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}, which is somewhat less than previous estimates but within the errors of many of them. We analyze data on 21 cm emission and absorption and obtain good agreement with recent results on the local amount of neutral atomic hydrogen obtained with the Planck satellite. The local surface density of gas is 13.7±1.6 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2}. The total baryonic mass surface density that we derive for the solar neighborhood is 47.1±3.4 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2} (43.8 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −2} within 1.1 kpc of the midplane). Combining these results with others’ measurements of the total surface density of matter within 1–1.1 kpc of the plane, we find that the local density of dark matter is ρ{sub DM}=0.013±0.003 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −3}=0.49±0.13 GeV cm{sup −3}. The local density of all matter is 0.097±0.013 M{sub ⊙} pc{sup −3}. We discuss limitations on the properties of a possible thin disk of dark matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

Relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter

We investigate the relic abundance of asymmetric Dark Matter particles that were in thermal equilibrium in the early universe. The standard analytic calculation of the symmetric Dark Matter is generalized to the asymmetric case. We calculate the asymmetry required to explain the observed Dark Matter relic abundance as a function of the annihilation cross section. We show that introducing an asymmetry always reduces the indirect detection signal from WIMP annihilation, although it has a larger annihilation cross section than symmetric Dark Matter. This opens new possibilities for the construction of realistic models of MeV Dark Matter.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

When LEP and Tevatron combined with WMAP and XENON100 shed light on the nature of dark matter

Recently, several astrophysical data or would-be signals has been observed in different dark-matter oriented experiments. In each case, one could fit the data at the price of specific nature of the coupling between the Standard Model (SM) particles and a light Dark Matter candidate: hadrophobic (INTEGRAL, PAMELA) or leptophobic (WMAP Haze, dijet anomalies of CDF, FERMI Galactic Center observation). In this work, we show that when one takes into account the more recent LEP and Tevatron analysis, a light thermal fermionic Dark Matter (∼<10 GeV) that couples to electrons is mainly ruled out if one combines the analysis with WMAP constraints. We also study the special case of scalar dark matter, using a single-photon events simulation to constrain the coupling of dark matter to electron.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dark matter mini-halo around the compact objects: the formation, evolution and possible contribution to the cosmic ray electrons/positrons

Dark matter particles may be captured by a star and then thermalized in the star's core. At the end of its life a massive star collapses suddenly and a compact object is formed. The dark matter particles redistribute accordingly. In the inelastic dark matter model, an extended dense dark matter mini-halo surrounding the neutron star may be formed. Such mini-halos may be common in the Galaxy. The electron/positron flux resulting in the annihilation of dark matter particles, however, is unable to give rise to observable signal unless a nascent mini-halo is within a distance ∼ a few 0.1 pc from the Earth.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Cosmological radio emission induced by WIMP Dark Matter

We present a detailed analysis of the radio synchrotron emission induced by WIMP dark matter annihilations and decays in extragalactic halos. We compute intensity, angular correlation, and source counts and discuss the impact on the expected signals of dark matter clustering, as well as of other astrophysical uncertainties as magnetic fields and spatial diffusion. Bounds on dark matter microscopic properties are then derived, and, depending on the specific set of assumptions, they are competitive with constraints from other indirect dark matter searches. At GHz frequencies, dark matter sources can become a significant fraction of the total number of sources with brightness below the microJansky level. We show that, at this level of fluxes (which are within the reach of the next-generation radio surveys), properties of the faint edge of differential source counts, as well as angular correlation data, can become an important probe for WIMPs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Global constraints on effective dark matter interactions: relic density, direct detection, indirect detection, and collider

An effective interaction approach is used to describe the interactions between the spin 0 or spin 1/2 dark matter particle and the degrees of freedom of the standard model. This approach is applicable to those models in which the dark matter particles do not experience the standard-model interactions, e.g., hidden-sector models. We explore the effects of these effective interaction operators on (i) dark matter relic density, (ii) spin-independent and spin-dependent dark matter-nucleon scattering cross sections, (iii) cosmic antiproton and gamma ray fluxes from the galactic halo due to dark matter annihilation, and (iv) monojet and monophoton production plus missing energy at the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We combine the experimental data of relic density from WMAP7, spin-independent cross section from XENON100, spin-dependent cross section from XENON10, ZEPLIN-III, and SIMPLE, cosmic antiproton flux from PAMELA, cosmic gamma-ray flux from Fermi-LAT, and the monojet and monophoton data from the Tevatron and the LHC, to put the most comprehensive limits on each effective operator.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dark matter and the habitability of planets

In many models, dark matter particles can elastically scatter with nuclei in planets, causing those particles to become gravitationally bound. While the energy expected to be released through the subsequent annihilations of dark matter particles in the interior of the Earth is negligibly small (a few megawatts in the most optimistic models), larger planets that reside in regions with higher densities of slow moving dark matter could plausibly capture and annihilate dark matter at a rate high enough to maintain liquid water on their surfaces, even in the absence of additional energy from starlight or other sources. On these rare planets, it may be dark matter rather than light from a host star that makes it possible for life to emerge, evolve, and survive.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Fermi LAT search for internal bremsstrahlung signatures from dark matter annihilation

A commonly encountered obstacle in indirect searches for galactic dark matter is how to disentangle possible signals from astrophysical backgrounds. Given that such signals are most likely subdominant, the search for pronounced spectral features plays a key role for indirect detection experiments; monochromatic gamma-ray lines or similar features related to internal bremsstrahlung, in particular, provide smoking gun signatures. We perform a dedicated search for the latter in the data taken by the Fermi gamma-ray space telescope during its first 43 months. To this end, we use a new adaptive procedure to select optimal target regions that takes into account both standard and contracted dark matter profiles. The behaviour of our statistical method is tested by a subsampling analysis of the full sky data and found to reproduce the theoretical expectations very well. The limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section that we derive are stronger than what can be obtained from the observation of dwarf galaxies and, at least for the model considered here, collider searches. While these limits are still not quite strong enough to probe annihilation rates expected for thermally produced dark matter, future prospects to do so are very good. In fact, we already find a weak indication, with a significance of 3.1σ (4.3σ) when (not) taking into account the look-elsewhere effect, for an internal bremsstrahlung-like signal that would correspond to a dark matter mass of ∼150 GeV; the same signal is also well fitted by a gamma-ray line at around 130 GeV. Although this would be a fascinating possibility, we caution that a much more dedicated analysis and additional data will be necessary to rule out or confirm this option.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

A tentative gamma-ray line from Dark Matter annihilation at the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The observation of a gamma-ray line in the cosmic-ray fluxes would be a smoking-gun signature for dark matter annihilation or decay in the Universe. We present an improved search for such signatures in the data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), concentrating on energies between 20 and 300 GeV. Besides updating to 43 months of data, we use a new data-driven technique to select optimized target regions depending on the profile of the Galactic dark matter halo. In regions close to the Galactic center, we find a 4.6σ indication for a gamma-ray line at E{sub γ} ≈ 130 GeV. When taking into account the look-elsewhere effect the significance of the observed excess is 3.2σ. If interpreted in terms of dark matter particles annihilating into a photon pair, the observations imply a dark matter mass of m{sub χ} = 129.8±2.4 {sup +7}{sub −13} GeV and a partial annihilation cross-section of (σv){sub χχ} {sub →} {sub γγ} = (1.27±0.32 {sup +0.18}{sub −0.28}) × 10{sup −27}cm{sup 3}s{sup −1} when using the Einasto dark matter profile. The evidence for the signal is based on about 50 photons; it will take a few years of additional data to clarify its existence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Structure formation with scalar field dark matter: the field approach

We study the formation of structure in the Universe assuming that dark matter can be described by a scalar field Φ-tilde with a potential V(Φ) = −m{sup 2}Φ-tilde {sup 2}/2+λΦ-tilde {sup 4}/4. We derive the evolution equations of the scalar field in the linear regime of perturbations. We investigate the symmetry breaking and possibly a phase transition of this scalar field in the early Universe. At low temperatures, the scalar perturbations have an oscillating growing mode and therefore, this kind of dark matter could lead to the formation of gravitational structures. In order to study the nonlinear regime, we use the spherical collapse model and show that, in the quadratic potential limit, this kind of dark matter can form virialized structures. The main difference with the traditional Cold Dark Matter paradigm is that the formation of structure in the scalar field model can occur at earlier times. Thus, if the dark matter behaves as a scalar field, large galaxies are expected to be formed already at high redshifts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Loop-induced dark matter direct detection signals from γ-ray lines

Improved limits as well as tentative claims for dark matter annihilation into γ-ray lines have been presented recently. We study the direct detection cross section induced from dark matter annihilation into two photons in a model-independent fashion, assuming no additional couplings between dark matter and nuclei. We find a striking non-standard recoil spectrum due to different destructively interfering contributions to the dark matter nucleus scattering cross section. While in the case of s-wave annihilation the current sensitivity of direct detection experiments is insufficient to compete with indirect detection searches, for p-wave annihilation the constraints from direct searches are comparable. This will allow to test dark matter scenarios with p-wave annihilation that predict a large di-photon annihilation cross section in the next generation of experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Structure formation constraints on Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation

We study the growth of cosmic structure in a ΛCDM universe under the assumption that dark matter self-annihilates with an averaged cross section times relative velocity that grows with the scale factor, an increase known as Sommerfeld-enhancement. Such an evolution is expected in models in which a light force carrier in the dark sector enhances the annihilation cross section of dark matter particles, and has been invoked, for instance, to explain anomalies in cosmic ray spectra reported in the past. In order to make our results as general as possible, we assume that dark matter annihilates into a relativistic species that only interacts gravitationally with the standard model. This assumption also allows us to test whether the additional relativistic species mildly favored by cosmic-microwave background data could originate from dark matter annihilation. We do not find evidence for Sommerfeld-enhanced dark matter annihilation and derive the corresponding upper limits on the annihilation cross-section.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Non-perturbative effect and PAMELA limit on electro-weak dark matter

We discuss the non-perturbative effects on the annihilation cross section of an Electro-Weak Dark Matter (EWDM) particle belonging to an electroweak multiplet when the splittings between the masses of the DM component and the other charged or neutral component(s) of the multiplet are treated as free parameters. Our analysis shows that EWDM exhibits not only the usual Sommerfeld enhancement with resonance peaks but also dips where the cross section is suppressed. Moreover, we have shown that the non-perturbative effects become important even when the EWDM mass is below the TeV scale, provided that some of the mass splittings are reduced to the order of a few MeV. This extends the possibility of observing sizeable non-perturbative effects in the dark matter annihilation to values of the dark matter mass significantly smaller than previously considered, since only electroweak-induced mass splittings larger than 100 MeV have been discussed in the literature so far. We have then used the available experimental data on the cosmic antiproton flux to constrain the EWDM parameter space. In our calculation of the expected signal we have included the effect of the convolution of the cross section with the velocity distribution of the dark matter particles in the Galaxy, showing that it can alter the non-perturbative effects significantly. In the case of EWDM with non-zero hypercharge, we have shown that the mass splitting in the Dirac dark matter fermion can be chosen so that the inelastic cross section of the EWDM off nuclei is allowed by present direct detection constraints and at the same time is within the reach of future experiments.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗