A likelihood fit of Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR4 unassociated sources finds 32 dark matter subhalo candidates with fitted masses mostly 30 to 500 GeV.
$\gamma$-ray and $\nu$ searches for dark matter subhalos in the Milky Way with a baryonic potential
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abstract
The distribution of dark matter (DM) subhalos in our Galaxy remains disputed, leading to varying $\gamma$-ray and $\nu$ flux predictions from their annihilation or decay. In this work, we study how, in the inner Galaxy, subhalo tidal disruption from the Galactic baryonic potential impacts these signals. Based on state-of-the art modeling of this effect from numerical simulations and semi-analytical results, updated subhalo spatial distributions are derived and included in the CLUMPY code. The latter is used to produce a thousand realizations of the $\gamma$-ray and $\nu$ sky. Compared to predictions based on DM only, we conclude a decrease of the flux of the brightest subhalo by a factor 2 to 7 for annihilating DM and no impact on decaying DM: the discovery prospects or limits subhalos can set on DM candidates are affected by the same factor. This study also provides probability density functions for the distance, mass, and angular distribution of the brightest subhalo, among which the mass may hint at its nature: it is most likely a dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the case of strong tidal effects from the baryonic potential, whereas it is lighter and possibly a dark halo for DM only or less pronounced tidal effects.
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Revisiting the search for dark matter subhalos using the Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR4 catalog
A likelihood fit of Fermi-LAT 4FGL-DR4 unassociated sources finds 32 dark matter subhalo candidates with fitted masses mostly 30 to 500 GeV.