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Dessert C, Ning O, Rodd NL, Safdi BR. Resurrecting Hitomi for Decaying Dark Matter and Forecasting Leading Sensitivity for XRISM. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2024; 132:211002. [PMID: 38856287 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.132.211002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 04/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/11/2024]
Abstract
The Hitomi x-ray satellite mission carried unique high-resolution spectrometers that were set to revolutionize the search for sterile neutrino dark matter (DM) by looking for narrow x-ray lines arising from DM decays. Unfortunately, the satellite was lost shortly after launch, and to date the only analysis using Hitomi for DM decay used data taken towards the Perseus cluster. In this work we present a significantly more sensitive search from an analysis of archival Hitomi data towards blank sky locations, searching for DM decaying in our own Milky Way. The recently launched XRISM satellite has nearly identical soft-x-ray spectral capabilities to Hitomi; we project the full-mission sensitivity of XRISM for analyses of their future blank-sky data, and we find that XRISM will have the leading sensitivity to decaying DM for masses between roughly 1 to 18 keV, with important implications for sterile neutrino and heavy axionlike particle DM scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Dessert
- Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
- Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, New York, New York 10010, USA
| | - Orion Ning
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Nicholas L Rodd
- Theoretical Physics Department, CERN, 1 Esplanade des Particules, CH-1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
| | - Benjamin R Safdi
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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Foster JW, Kongsore M, Dessert C, Park Y, Rodd NL, Cranmer K, Safdi BR. Deep Search for Decaying Dark Matter with XMM-Newton Blank-Sky Observations. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2021; 127:051101. [PMID: 34397235 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.127.051101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Revised: 04/30/2021] [Accepted: 07/09/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Sterile neutrinos with masses in the keV range are well-motivated extensions to the Standard Model that could explain the observed neutrino masses while also making up the dark matter (DM) of the universe. If sterile neutrinos are DM then they may slowly decay into active neutrinos and photons, giving rise to the possibility of their detection through narrow spectral features in astrophysical x-ray data sets. In this Letter, we perform the most sensitive search to date for this and other decaying DM scenarios across the mass range from 5 to 16 keV using archival XMM-Newton data. We reduce 547 Ms of data from both the MOS and PN instruments using observations taken across the full sky and then use this data to search for evidence of DM decay in the ambient halo of the Milky Way. We determine the instrumental and astrophysical baselines with data taken far away from the Galactic Center, and use Gaussian process modeling to capture additional continuum background contributions. No evidence is found for unassociated x-ray lines, leading us to produce the strongest constraints to date on decaying DM in this mass range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joshua W Foster
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Marius Kongsore
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
| | - Christopher Dessert
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Yujin Park
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Nicholas L Rodd
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
| | - Kyle Cranmer
- Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, New York, New York 10003, USA
| | - Benjamin R Safdi
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
- Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
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Dessert C, Rodd NL, Safdi BR. The dark matter interpretation of the 3.5-keV line is inconsistent with blank-sky observations. Science 2020; 367:1465-1467. [PMID: 32217724 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaw3772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2018] [Accepted: 03/04/2020] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Observations of nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters have reported an unexpected x-ray emission line around 3.5 kilo-electron volts (keV). Proposals to explain this line include decaying dark matter-in particular, that the decay of sterile neutrinos with a mass around 7 keV could match the available data. If this interpretation is correct, the 3.5-keV line should also be emitted by dark matter in the halo of the Milky Way. We used more than 30 megaseconds of XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission) blank-sky observations to test this hypothesis, finding no evidence of the 3.5-keV line emission from the Milky Way halo. We set an upper limit on the decay rate of dark matter in this mass range, which is inconsistent with the possibility that the 3.5-keV line originates from dark matter decay.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Dessert
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
| | - Nicholas L Rodd
- Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.,Theoretical Physics Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Benjamin R Safdi
- Leinweber Center for Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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Abstract
The development of methods and algorithms to solve the N-body problem for classical, collisionless, non-relativistic particles has made it possible to follow the growth and evolution of cosmic dark matter structures over most of the universe’s history. In the best-studied case—the cold dark matter or CDM model—the dark matter is assumed to consist of elementary particles that had negligible thermal velocities at early times. Progress over the past three decades has led to a nearly complete description of the assembly, structure, and spatial distribution of dark matter haloes, and their substructure in this model, over almost the entire mass range of astronomical objects. On scales of galaxies and above, predictions from this standard CDM model have been shown to provide a remarkably good match to a wide variety of astronomical data over a large range of epochs, from the temperature structure of the cosmic background radiation to the large-scale distribution of galaxies. The frontier in this field has shifted to the relatively unexplored subgalactic scales, the domain of the central regions of massive haloes, and that of low-mass haloes and subhaloes, where potentially fundamental questions remain. Answering them may require: (i) the effect of known but uncertain baryonic processes (involving gas and stars), and/or (ii) alternative models with new dark matter physics. Here we present a review of the field, focusing on our current understanding of dark matter structure from N-body simulations and on the challenges ahead.
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Ng KC, Roach BM, Perez K, Beacom JF, Horiuchi S, Krivonos R, Wik DR. New constraints on sterile neutrino dark matter from NuSTAR M31 observations. Int J Clin Exp Med 2019. [DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.99.083005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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Gall AC, Foster AR, Silwal R, Dreiling JM, Borovik A, Kilgore E, Ajello M, Gillaspy JD, Ralchenko Y, Takács E. EBIT Observation of Ar Dielectronic Recombination Lines near the Unknown Faint X-Ray Feature Found in the Stacked Spectrum of Galaxy Clusters. THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL 2019; 872:10.3847/1538-4357/ab0177. [PMID: 34795454 PMCID: PMC8596318 DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab0177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Motivated by possible atomic origins of the unidentified emission line detected at 3.55-3.57 keV in a stacked spectrum of galaxy clusters, an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) was used to investigate the resonant dielectronic recombination (DR) process in highly charged argon ions as a possible contributor to the emission feature. The He-like Ar DR-induced transition 1s22l-1s2l3l' was suggested to produce a 3.62 keV photon near the unidentified line at 3.57 keV and was the starting point of our investigation. The collisional-radiative model NOMAD was used to create synthetic spectra for comparison with both our EBIT measurements and with spectra produced with the AtomDB database/Astrophysical Plasma Emission Code (APEC) used in the Bulbul et al. work. Excellent agreement was found between the NOMAD and EBIT spectra, providing a high level of confidence in the atomic data used. Comparison of the NOMAD and APEC spectra revealed a number of missing features in the AtomDB database near the unidentified line. At an electron temperature of T e = 1.72 keV, the inclusion of the missing lines in AtomDB increases the total flux in the 3.5-3.66 keV energy band by a factor of 2. While important, this extra emission is not enough to explain the unidentified line found in the galaxy cluster spectra.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy C Gall
- Clemson University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson, SC 29634-0978, USA
| | - Adam R Foster
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Roshani Silwal
- Clemson University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson, SC 29634-0978, USA
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
| | - Joan M Dreiling
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
| | - Alexander Borovik
- I. Physikalisches Institut, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, D-35392 Giessen, Germany
| | - Ethan Kilgore
- Clemson University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson, SC 29634-0978, USA
| | - Marco Ajello
- Clemson University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson, SC 29634-0978, USA
| | - John D Gillaspy
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
- National Science Foundation, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA
| | - Yuri Ralchenko
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
| | - Endre Takács
- Clemson University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson, SC 29634-0978, USA
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA
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Day F, Fairbairn M. Detecting fluorescent dark matter with X-ray lasers. THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL. C, PARTICLES AND FIELDS 2018; 78:512. [PMID: 30956557 PMCID: PMC6417462 DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5994-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2018] [Accepted: 06/14/2018] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
Fluorescent dark matter has been suggested as a possible explanation of both the 3.5 keV excess in the diffuse emission of the Perseus Cluster and of the deficit at the same energy in the central active galaxy within that cluster, NGC 1275. In this work we point out that such a dark matter candidate can be searched for at the new X-ray laser facilities that are currently being built and starting to operate around the world. We present one possible experimental set up where the laser is passed through a narrow cylinder lined with lead shielding. Fluorescent dark matter would be excited upon interaction with the laser photons and travel across the lead shielding to decay outside the cylinder, in a region which has been instrumented with X-ray detectors. For an instrumented length of 7 cm at the LCLS-II laser we expect O (1-10) such events per week for parameters which explain the astronomical observations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca Day
- DAMTP, CMS, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA UK
| | - Malcolm Fairbairn
- Department of Physics, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS UK
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Roszkowski L, Sessolo EM, Trojanowski S. WIMP dark matter candidates and searches-current status and future prospects. REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS. PHYSICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN) 2018; 81:066201. [PMID: 29569575 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6633/aab913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
We review several current aspects of dark matter theory and experiment. We overview the present experimental status, which includes current bounds and recent claims and hints of a possible signal in a wide range of experiments: direct detection in underground laboratories, gamma-ray, cosmic ray, x-ray, neutrino telescopes, and the LHC. We briefly review several possible particle candidates for a weakly interactive massive particle (WIMP) and dark matter that have recently been considered in the literature. We pay particular attention to the lightest neutralino of supersymmetry as it remains the best motivated candidate for dark matter and also shows excellent detection prospects. Finally we briefly review some alternative scenarios that can considerably alter properties and prospects for the detection of dark matter obtained within the standard thermal WIMP paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leszek Roszkowski
- National Centre for Nuclear Research, Hoża 69, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom
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Brdar V, Kopp J, Liu J, Wang XP. X-Ray Lines from Dark Matter Annihilation at the keV Scale. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2018; 120:061301. [PMID: 29481266 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.120.061301] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Revised: 12/04/2017] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
In 2014, several groups reported hints for a yet unidentified line in astrophysical x-ray signals from galaxies and galaxy clusters at an energy of 3.5 keV. While it is not unlikely that this line is simply a reflection of imperfectly modeled atomic transitions, it has renewed the community's interest in models of keV-scale dark matter, whose decay would lead to such a line. The alternative possibility of dark matter annihilation into monochromatic photons is far less explored, a lapse that we strive to amend in this Letter. More precisely, we introduce a novel model of fermionic dark matter χ with O(keV) mass, annihilating to a scalar state ϕ which in turn decays to photons, for instance via loops of heavy vectorlike fermions. The resulting photon spectrum is box shaped, but if χ and ϕ are nearly degenerate in mass, it can also resemble a narrow line. We discuss dark matter production via two different mechanisms-misalignment and freeze-in-which both turn out to be viable in vast regions of parameter space. We constrain the model using astrophysical x-ray data, and we demonstrate that, thanks to the velocity dependence of the annihilation cross section, it has the potential to reconcile the various observations of the 3.5 keV line. We finally argue that the model can easily avoid structure formation constraints on keV-scale dark matter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vedran Brdar
- PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Joachim Kopp
- PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
| | - Jia Liu
- PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
- Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
| | - Xiao-Ping Wang
- PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
- High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
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Dienes KR, Kumar J, Thomas B, Yaylali D. Off-diagonal dark-matter phenomenology: Exploring enhanced complementarity relations in nonminimal dark sectors. Int J Clin Exp Med 2017. [DOI: 10.1103/physrevd.96.115009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
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12
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Plasma Measurements of the Fe xvii L-shell Emission and Blending with F viii and F ix. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2017. [DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa9078] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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