VERITAS SEARCH FOR VHE GAMMA-RAY EMISSION FROM DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXIES

被引:72
作者
Acciari, V. A. [1 ]
Arlen, T. [2 ]
Aune, T. [3 ,4 ]
Beilicke, M. [5 ]
Benbow, W. [1 ]
Boltuch, D. [6 ,7 ]
Bradbury, S. M. [8 ]
Buckley, J. H. [5 ]
Bugaev, V. [5 ]
Byrum, K. [9 ]
Cannon, A. [10 ]
Cesarini, A. [11 ]
Christiansen, J. L. [12 ]
Ciupik, L. [13 ]
Cui, W. [14 ]
Dickherber, R. [5 ]
Duke, C. [15 ]
Finley, J. P. [14 ]
Finnegan, G. [16 ]
Furniss, A. [3 ,4 ]
Galante, N. [1 ]
Godambe, S. [16 ]
Grube, J. [13 ]
Guenette, R. [17 ]
Gyuk, G. [13 ]
Hanna, D. [17 ]
Holder, J. [6 ,7 ]
Hui, C. M. [16 ]
Humensky, T. B. [18 ]
Imran, A. [19 ]
Kaaret, P. [20 ]
Karlsson, N. [13 ]
Kertzman, M. [21 ]
Kieda, D. [16 ]
Konopelko, A. [22 ]
Krawczynski, H. [5 ]
Krennrich, F. [19 ]
Maier, G. [17 ]
McArthur, S. [5 ]
McCann, A. [17 ]
McCutcheon, M. [17 ]
Moriarty, P. [23 ]
Ong, R. A. [2 ]
Otte, A. N. [3 ,4 ]
Pandel, D. [20 ]
Perkins, J. S. [1 ]
Pohl, M. [19 ]
Quinn, J. [10 ]
Ragan, K. [17 ]
Reyes, L. C. [24 ]
机构
[1] Harvard Smithsonian Ctr Astrophys, Fred Lawrence Whipple Observ, Amado, AZ 85645 USA
[2] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Phys & Astron, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA
[3] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Inst Particle Phys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA
[4] Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Phys, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 USA
[5] Washington Univ, Dept Phys, St Louis, MO 63130 USA
[6] Univ Delaware, Dept Phys & Astron, Newark, DE 19716 USA
[7] Univ Delaware, Bartol Res Inst, Newark, DE 19716 USA
[8] Univ Leeds, Sch Phys & Astron, Leeds LS2 9JT, W Yorkshire, England
[9] Argonne Natl Lab, Argonne, IL 60439 USA
[10] Natl Univ Ireland Univ Coll Dublin, Sch Phys, Dublin 4, Ireland
[11] Natl Univ Ireland Galway, Sch Phys, Galway, Ireland
[12] Calif Polytech State Univ San Luis Obispo, Dept Phys, San Luis Obispo, CA 94307 USA
[13] Adler Planetarium & Astron Museum, Dept Astron, Chicago, IL 60605 USA
[14] Purdue Univ, Dept Phys, W Lafayette, IN 47907 USA
[15] Grinnell Coll, Dept Phys, Grinnell, IA 50112 USA
[16] Univ Utah, Dept Phys & Astron, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA
[17] McGill Univ, Dept Phys, Montreal, PQ H3A 2T8, Canada
[18] Univ Chicago, Enrico Fermi Inst, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
[19] Iowa State Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Ames, IA 50011 USA
[20] Univ Iowa, Dept Phys & Astron, Iowa City, IA 52242 USA
[21] Depauw Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, Greencastle, IN 46135 USA
[22] Pittsburg State Univ, Dept Phys, Pittsburg, KS 66762 USA
[23] Galway Mayo Inst Technol, Dept Life & Phys Sci, Galway, Ireland
[24] Univ Chicago, Kavli Inst Cosmol Phys, Chicago, IL 60637 USA
[25] Cork Inst Technol, Dept Appl Phys & Instrumentat, Cork, Ireland
[26] Columbia Univ, Columbia Astrophys Lab, New York, NY 10027 USA
基金
美国国家科学基金会; 爱尔兰科学基金会; 加拿大自然科学与工程研究理事会;
关键词
dark matter; galaxies: dwarf; gamma rays: galaxies; EXPLORING HALO SUBSTRUCTURE; DARK-MATTER SUBSTRUCTURE; VELOCITY DISPERSION PROFILES; URSA-MINOR; GIANT STARS; DENSITY PROFILES; DRACO; ANNIHILATION; SATELLITES; EVOLUTION;
D O I
10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1174
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
Indirect dark matter searches with ground-based gamma-ray observatories provide an alternative for identifying the particle nature of dark matter that is complementary to that of direct search or accelerator production experiments. We present the results of observations of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies Draco, Ursa Minor, Bootes 1, and Willman 1 conducted by the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS). These galaxies are nearby dark matter dominated objects located at a typical distance of several tens of kiloparsecs for which there are good measurements of the dark matter density profile from stellar velocity measurements. Since the conventional astrophysical background of very high energy gamma rays from these objects appears to be negligible, they are good targets to search for the secondary gamma-ray photons produced by interacting or decaying dark matter particles. No significant gamma-ray flux above 200 GeV was detected from these four dwarf galaxies for a typical exposure of similar to 20 hr. The 95% confidence upper limits on the integral gamma-ray flux are in the range (0.4-2.2) x 10(-12) photons cm(-2) s(-1). We interpret this limiting flux in the context of pair annihilation of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) and derive constraints on the thermally averaged product of the total self-annihilation cross section and the relative velocity of the WIMPs (<sigma nu > less than or similar to 10(-23) cm(3) s(-1) for m(chi) greater than or similar to 300 GeV c(-2)). This limit is obtained under conservative assumptions regarding the dark matter distribution in dwarf galaxies and is approximately 3 orders of magnitude above the generic theoretical prediction for WIMPs in the minimal supersymmetric standard model framework. However, significant uncertainty exists in the dark matter distribution as well as the neutralino cross sections which under favorable assumptions could further lower this limit.
引用
收藏
页码:1174 / 1180
页数:7
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