학술논문

Updated search for spectral lines from Galactic dark matter interactions with pass 8 data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope
Document Type
article
Source
Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology. 91(12)
Subject
Astronomical and Space Sciences
Atomic
Molecular
Nuclear
Particle and Plasma Physics
Quantum Physics
Nuclear & Particles Physics
Atomic
Molecular
Nuclear
Particle and Plasma Physics
Language
Abstract
Dark matter in the Milky Way may annihilate directly into γ rays, producing a monoenergetic spectral line. Therefore, detecting such a signature would be strong evidence for dark matter annihilation or decay. We search for spectral lines in the Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of the Milky Way halo in the energy range 200 MeV-500 GeV using analysis methods from our most recent line searches. The main improvements relative to previous works are our use of 5.8 years of data reprocessed with the Pass 8 event-level analysis and the additional data resulting from the modified observing strategy designed to increase exposure of the Galactic center region. We search in five sky regions selected to optimize sensitivity to different theoretically motivated dark matter scenarios and find no significant detections. In addition to presenting the results from our search for lines, we also investigate the previously reported tentative detection of a line at 133 GeV using the new Pass 8 data.