Constraints on dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31

A.E. Egorov; E. Pierpaoli

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Constraints on dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31

A.E. Egorov, E. Pierpaoli

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Submitted 2 Apr 2013

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Assuming a standard NFW dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section <\sigma v> = 3*10^{-26} cm^3/s or higher are only allowed for WIMP masses greater than 100 GeV and 55 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively.

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We used radio observations of the neighbour galaxy M31 in order to put constraints on dark matter particle mass and annihilation cross section. Dark matter annihilation in M31 halo produces highly energetic leptons, which emit synchrotron radiation on radio frequencies in the galactic magnetic field. We predicted expected radio fluxes for the two annihilation channels: \chi\chi -> bb* and \chi\chi -> \tau^+\tau^-. We then compared them with available data on the central radio emission of M31 as observed by four radio surveys: VLSS (74 MHz), WENSS (325 MHz), NVSS (1400 MHz) and GB6 (4850 MHz). Assuming a standard NFW dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section <\sigma v> = 3*10^{-26} cm^3/s or higher are only allowed for WIMP masses greater than 100 GeV and 55 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively. Taking into account potential uncertainties in the distributions of DM density and magnetic field, the mentioned WIMP limiting masses can be as low as 23 GeV for both channels, and as high as 280 and 130 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively. These mass values exceed the best up-to-day known constraints from Fermi gamma observations: 40 GeV and 19 GeV respectively [A.Geringer-Sameth and S.M.Koushiappas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 241303 (2011)]. Precise measurements of the magnetic field in the relevant region and better reconstruction of the DM density profile of M31 will be able to reduce the uncertainties of our exclusion limits.

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What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	We used radio observations of the neighbour galaxy M31 in order to put constraints on dark matter particle mass and annihilation cross section.	contribution 0.84	0.96	0.05	asserted 0.99
s1	Dark matter annihilation in M31 halo produces highly energetic leptons, which emit synchrotron radiation on radio frequencies in the galactic magnetic field.	background 0.88	0.09	0.02	asserted 1.00
s2	We predicted expected radio fluxes for the two annihilation channels: \chi\chi -> bb* and \chi\chi -> \tau^+\tau^-.	method 0.84	0.95	0.03	asserted 0.99
s3	We then compared them with available data on the central radio emission of M31 as observed by four radio surveys: VLSS (74 MHz), WENSS (325 MHz), NVSS (1400 MHz) and GB6 (4850 MHz).	method 1.00	0.79	0.02	asserted 0.99
s4	Assuming a standard NFW dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section <\sigma v> = 310^{-26} cm^3/s or higher are only allowed for WIMP masses greater than 100 GeV and 55 GeV for annihilation into bb and \tau^+\tau^- respectively.	result 1.00	0.96	0.73	asserted 1.00
s5	Taking into account potential uncertainties in the distributions of DM density and magnetic field, the mentioned WIMP limiting masses can be as low as 23 GeV for both channels, and as high as 280 and 130 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively.	result 0.93	0.91	0.17	hedged possibility 0.83
s6	These mass values exceed the best up-to-day known constraints from Fermi gamma observations: 40 GeV and 19 GeV respectively [A.Geringer-Sameth and S.M.Koushiappas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 241303 (2011)].	interpretation 0.70	0.18	0.19	asserted 1.00
s7	Precise measurements of the magnetic field in the relevant region and better reconstruction of the DM density profile of M31 will be able to reduce the uncertainties of our exclusion limits.	future work 0.98	0.18	0.04	hedged possibility 0.91

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: empirical study 0.39 · evidence from analysis of existing data 0.98.

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The paper

Original abstract

We used radio observations of the neighbour galaxy M31 in order to put constraints on dark matter particle mass and annihilation cross section. Dark matter annihilation in M31 halo produces highly energetic leptons, which emit synchrotron radiation on radio frequencies in the galactic magnetic field. We predicted expected radio fluxes for the two annihilation channels: \chi\chi -> bb* and \chi\chi -> \tau^+\tau^-. We then compared them with available data on the central radio emission of M31 as observed by four radio surveys: VLSS (74 MHz), WENSS (325 MHz), NVSS (1400 MHz) and GB6 (4850 MHz). Assuming a standard NFW dark matter density profile and a conservative magnetic field distribution inside the Andromeda galaxy, we find that the thermal relic annihilation cross section <\sigma v> = 3*10^{-26} cm^3/s or higher are only allowed for WIMP masses greater than 100 GeV and 55 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively. Taking into account potential uncertainties in the distributions of DM density and magnetic field, the mentioned WIMP limiting masses can be as low as 23 GeV for both channels, and as high as 280 and 130 GeV for annihilation into bb* and \tau^+\tau^- respectively. These mass values exceed the best up-to-day known constraints from Fermi gamma observations: 40 GeV and 19 GeV respectively [A.Geringer-Sameth and S.M.Koushiappas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 241303 (2011)]. Precise measurements of the magnetic field in the relevant region and better reconstruction of the DM density profile of M31 will be able to reduce the uncertainties of our exclusion limits.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 5 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

Detection prospects for heavy WIMP dark matter around M31* in microwave band
astro-ph.GA 2026-09 accept novelty 6.0 of 10

ALMA observations of the M31 supermassive black hole could detect thermal s-wave WIMPs up to 1 TeV (and optimistically up to 100 TeV) through synchrotron emission from annihilation products in the dark matter spike.
A 3.55 keV Photon Line and its Morphology from a 3.55 keV ALP Line
hep-ph 2014-03 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

Dark matter decaying into axion-like particles, which convert to photons in cluster magnetic fields, can reproduce the 3.55 keV line and its concentration in cool-core clusters.
Updated cosmic-ray and radio constraints on light dark matter: Implications for the GeV gamma-ray excess at the Galactic center
astro-ph.HE 2014-06 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

Updated antiproton, positron and radio limits put the standard annihilating-dark-matter explanation of the Galactic center GeV excess in strong tension for every channel that fits its spectrum.
Testing Viability of Benchmark Dark Matter Models for the Galactic Center Excess
hep-ph 2025-09 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

Updated constraints on two simplified dark matter models for the Galactic Center Excess leave unconstrained parameter space after applying recent multi-experiment data.
A review of indirect searches for particle dark matter
astro-ph.HE 2016-03 accept novelty 2.0 of 10

By 2016 indirect dark matter searches had begun to reach thermal-relic annihilation cross sections and had produced several debated excesses, but no confirmed detection.

How the literature uses it

14 arXiv papers cite this in 38 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers citing it · 21 sentences without a confident label

Contests it 1 paper

The authors extrapolated (similarly to [ref] ) MW central ISRF energy density to M31, which would overestimate the emission intensity from $e^±$ due to underestimated cooling rate.

Updated constraints on WIMP dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31 · Critical review of the previous works on the subject · contest 0.87

Builds on it 2 papers

In fact, this paper continues our previous work on the subject [ref] .

Updated constraints on WIMP dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31 · Introduction and motivation · 0.98
In this regard we agree with, and advance upon previous work done on radio-frequency DM hunting in M31 in [ref] .

An excess of excesses examined via dark matter radio emissions from galaxies · Introduction · 0.87

Uses its method or tool 3 papers

The loss-function is found via [ref] [equation] where $n$ is the average gas density, the coefficients $b_IC$, $b_sync$, $b_Coul$, $b_brem$ are the energy-loss rates from ICS, synchrotron emission, Coulomb scattering, and bremsstrahlung.

Indirect detection prospects for d$^*$(2380) dark matter · Electron equilibrium distributions · 0.88
Similar methodology was utilized in our previous work [ref] .

Updated constraints on WIMP dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31 · Derivation of DM constraints from various radio data · 0.87
The loss-function is found via [ref] : [equation] where $n$ is the average gas density, the coefficients $b_IC$, $b_sync$, $b_Coul$, $b_brem$ are the energy-loss rates from ICS, synchrotron emission, Coulomb scattering, and bremsstrahlung.

Connecting multi-lepton anomalies at the LHC and in Astrophysics with MeerKAT/SKA · Astrophysical modelling · 0.97

Uses its data or values 2 papers

For example, based on measurements in the central kiloparsec the authors of [ref] estimate a central field $B ≃50 μG$.

3.55 keV photon lines from axion to photon conversion in the Milky Way and M31 · Andromeda (M31) · 0.98
These scale heights were taken from [ref] .

Dark matter searches by the planned gamma-ray telescope GAMMA-400 · ALP discovery potential by an observation of the supernova explosion in the Local Group · 1.00

Compares with it 2 papers

Then it was very important to establish/check the consistency between our previous setups [ref] and the current one.

Updated constraints on WIMP dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31 · Adaptation of GALPROP for M31 · 0.92
The NFW results for this pessimistic case agree quite closely with the joint constraints presented in [ref] for the most pessimistic magnetic field estimate both the $b$ quark and $τ$ lepton channels (other channels are not displayed similarly in [ref] ).

An excess of excesses examined via dark matter radio emissions from galaxies · Constraints from M31 · 1.00

Cites it as background 2 papers

Here is the list of papers dedicated to DM searches in M31 in radio best to the author's knowledge – [ref] .

Updated constraints on WIMP dark matter annihilation by radio observations of M31 · Critical review of the previous works on the subject · 0.95
Despite extensive gravitational evidence [ref] (or see [ref] for a review) neither direct [ref] (or see [ref] and references therein for a review) nor indirect searches [ref] have produced anything beyond parameter space constraints on models of cold (or non-relativistic at the time of freeze-out) DM normally favoured by the eponymous, and now standard, $Λ$CDM model of cosmology [ref] .

Indirect detection prospects for d$^*$(2380) dark matter · Introduction · 0.95

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