학술논문
Search for Ultraheavy Dark Matter from Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with VERITAS
Document Type
article
Author
A. Acharyya; A. Archer; P. Bangale; J. T. Bartkoske; P. Batista; M. Baumgart; W. Benbow; J. H. Buckley; A. Falcone; Q. Feng; J. P. Finley; G. M. Foote; L. Fortson; A. Furniss; G. Gallagher; W. F. Hanlon; O. Hervet; J. Hoang; J. Holder; T. B. Humensky; W. Jin; P. Kaaret; M. Kertzman; M. Kherlakian; D. Kieda; T. K. Kleiner; N. Korzoun; F. Krennrich; M. J. Lang; M. Lundy; G. Maier; C. E McGrath; P. Moriarty; S. O’Brien; R. A. Ong; K. Pfrang; M. Pohl; E. Pueschel; J. Quinn; K. Ragan; P. T. Reynolds; E. Roache; N. L. Rodd; J. L. Ryan; I. Sadeh; L. Saha; M. Santander; G. H. Sembroski; R. Shang; M. Splettstoesser; D. Tak; J. V. Tucci; V. V. Vassiliev; D. A. Williams
Source
The Astrophysical Journal, Vol 945, Iss 2, p 101 (2023)
Subject
Language
English
ISSN
1538-4357
Abstract
Dark matter is a key piece of the current cosmological scenario, with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) a leading dark matter candidate. WIMPs have not been detected in their conventional parameter space (100 GeV ≲ M _χ ≲ 100 TeV), a mass range accessible with current Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. As ultraheavy dark matter (UHDM; M _χ ≳ 100 TeV) has been suggested as an underexplored alternative to the WIMP paradigm, we search for an indirect dark matter annihilation signal in a higher mass range (up to 30 PeV) with the VERITAS γ -ray observatory. With 216 hr of observations of four dwarf spheroidal galaxies, we perform an unbinned likelihood analysis. We find no evidence of a γ -ray signal from UHDM annihilation above the background fluctuation for any individual dwarf galaxy nor for a joint-fit analysis, and consequently constrain the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section of UHDM for dark matter particle masses between 1 TeV and 30 PeV. We additionally set constraints on the allowed radius of a composite UHDM particle.