Constraints on the dark matter annihilation from Fermi-LAT observation of M31

Qiang Yuan; Xiaoyuan Huang; Yupeng Xu; Zhengwei Li

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Constraints on the dark matter annihilation from Fermi-LAT observation of M31

Zhengwei Li, Xiaoyuan Huang, Qiang Yuan, Yupeng Xu

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Submitted 30 Dec 2013

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

The authors' main claim However, the required DM annihilation cross section is about $10^{-25}-10^{-24}$ cm$^3$s$^{-1}$, orders of magnitude larger than the constraints from observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, indicating a non-DM origin of the emission.

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arXiv ID1312.7609 (version 3)

Pith ID2D2MW4UE, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationQiang Yuan, Xiaoyuan Huang, Yupeng Xu, Zhengwei Li. "Constraints on the dark matter annihilation from Fermi-LAT observation of M31." arXiv:1312.7609 (2013). https://pith.science/paper/2D2MW4UE

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What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.84 · states limitation 0.76 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.29 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.98 · compares with prior results 0.97 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v3. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

Gamma-ray is a good probe of dark matter (DM) particles in the Universe. We search for the DM annihilation signals in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) using 7.5 year Fermi-LAT pass 8 data. Similar to Pshirkov et al. (2016), we find that there is residual excess emission from the direction of M31 if only the galactic disk as traced by the far infrared emission is considered. Adding a point-like source will improve the fitting effectively, although additional slight improvements can be found if an extended component such as a uniform disk or two bubbles is added instead. Taking the far infrared disk plus a point source as the background model, we search for the DM annihilation signals in the data. We find that there is strong degeneracy between the emission from the galaxy and that from 10s GeV mass DM annihilation in the main halo with quark final state. However, the required DM annihilation cross section is about $10^{-25}-10^{-24}$ cm$^3$s$^{-1}$, orders of magnitude larger than the constraints from observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, indicating a non-DM origin of the emission. If DM subhalos are taken into account, the degeneracy is broken. When considering the enhancement from DM subhalos, the constraints on DM model parameters are comparable to (or slightly weaker than) those from the population of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We also discuss the inverse Compton scattering component from DM annihilation induced electrons/positrons. For the first time we include an energy dependent template of the inverse Compton emission (i.e., a template cube) in the data analysis to take into account the effect of diffusion of charged particles. We find a significant improvement of the constraints in the high mass range of DM particles after considering the inverse Compton emission.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

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	Gamma-ray is a good probe of dark matter (DM) particles in the Universe.	background 1.00	0.04	0.02	asserted 1.00
s1	We search for the DM annihilation signals in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) using 7.5 year Fermi-LAT pass 8 data.	contribution 0.52	0.97	0.03	asserted 0.92
s2	Similar to Pshirkov et al. (2016), we find that there is residual excess emission from the direction of M31 if only the galactic disk as traced by the far infrared emission is considered.	result 0.93	0.83	0.05	asserted 1.00
s3	Adding a point-like source will improve the fitting effectively, although additional slight improvements can be found if an extended component such as a uniform disk or two bubbles is added instead.	result 0.80	0.89	0.04	asserted 0.97
s4	Taking the far infrared disk plus a point source as the background model, we search for the DM annihilation signals in the data.	method 0.99	0.93	0.03	asserted 0.92
s5	We find that there is strong degeneracy between the emission from the galaxy and that from 10s GeV mass DM annihilation in the main halo with quark final state.	result 1.00	0.95	0.09	asserted 1.00
s6	However, the required DM annihilation cross section is about $10^{-25}-10^{-24}$ cm$^3$s$^{-1}$, orders of magnitude larger than the constraints from observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, indicating a non-DM origin of the emission.	interpretation 0.86	0.94	0.53	asserted 0.58
s7	If DM subhalos are taken into account, the degeneracy is broken.	result 0.88	0.66	0.07	asserted 0.99
s8	When considering the enhancement from DM subhalos, the constraints on DM model parameters are comparable to (or slightly weaker than) those from the population of dwarf spheroidal galaxies.	result 0.99	0.91	0.29	asserted 0.98
s9	We also discuss the inverse Compton scattering component from DM annihilation induced electrons/positrons.	contribution 0.96	0.66	0.03	asserted 0.62
s10	For the first time we include an energy dependent template of the inverse Compton emission (i.e., a template cube) in the data analysis to take into account the effect of diffusion of charged particles.	contribution 0.85	0.95	0.03	asserted 1.00
s11	We find a significant improvement of the constraints in the high mass range of DM particles after considering the inverse Compton emission.	result 1.00	0.96	0.14	asserted 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: empirical study 0.97 · evidence from analysis of existing data 1.00.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read

arXiv listing abstract v3

not examined

full text
figures and tables
references and citing sentences
relations to other papers

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P abstract

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S sections
T body sentences
C citations
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Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper

Original abstract

Gamma-ray is a good probe of dark matter (DM) particles in the Universe. We search for the DM annihilation signals in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) using 7.5 year Fermi-LAT pass 8 data. Similar to Pshirkov et al. (2016), we find that there is residual excess emission from the direction of M31 if only the galactic disk as traced by the far infrared emission is considered. Adding a point-like source will improve the fitting effectively, although additional slight improvements can be found if an extended component such as a uniform disk or two bubbles is added instead. Taking the far infrared disk plus a point source as the background model, we search for the DM annihilation signals in the data. We find that there is strong degeneracy between the emission from the galaxy and that from 10s GeV mass DM annihilation in the main halo with quark final state. However, the required DM annihilation cross section is about $10^{-25}-10^{-24}$ cm$^3$s$^{-1}$, orders of magnitude larger than the constraints from observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, indicating a non-DM origin of the emission. If DM subhalos are taken into account, the degeneracy is broken. When considering the enhancement from DM subhalos, the constraints on DM model parameters are comparable to (or slightly weaker than) those from the population of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We also discuss the inverse Compton scattering component from DM annihilation induced electrons/positrons. For the first time we include an energy dependent template of the inverse Compton emission (i.e., a template cube) in the data analysis to take into account the effect of diffusion of charged particles. We find a significant improvement of the constraints in the high mass range of DM particles after considering the inverse Compton emission.

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References

Forward citations

Cited by 3 Pith papers

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

Legacy Analysis of Dark Matter Annihilation from the Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with 14 Years of Fermi-LAT Data
astro-ph.HE 2023-11 accept novelty 4.0 of 10

No significant gamma-ray dark matter signal appears in 14.3 years of Fermi-LAT data toward 50 dwarf spheroidal galaxies; updated cross-section limits are marginally tighter than prior dwarf-galaxy results.
Low-mass right-handed sneutrino dark matter: SuperCDMS and LUX constraints and the Galactic Centre gamma-ray excess
hep-ph 2014-04 conditional novelty 4.0 of 10

Light right-handed sneutrinos in the NMSSM can satisfy current Higgs, flavour, direct-detection, and indirect-detection constraints for masses from about 2 to 50 GeV, with a wide surviving region for future low-thresh...
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

10 arXiv papers cite this in 17 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 · 12 sentences without a confident label

Compares with it 1 paper

With these assumptions in mind, we find that the constraints derived for both $Γ$ and $$ are competitive with previous studies that have considered cross-correlations between and other cosmological tracers: weak-lensing [ref] , galaxy surveys [ref] , as well as constraints derived from local structures [ref] .

Constraints on dark matter and astrophysics from tomographic $\gamma$-ray cross-correlations · Constraints on DM parameters · 1.00

Cites it as background 4 papers

Many works studied the possibility of presence of DM contribution in the gamma-ray emission [ref] and derived the respective constraints.

Nature of M31 gamma-ray halo in relation to dark matter annihilation · Introduction and motivation · 0.92
For instance, Ref. [ref] tried to search for the DM annihilation signals in the direction of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), while Ref. [ref] studied the data from the Galactic Center and founded hints for gamma-ray excess, but it is not a significant DM signal.

Gamma-ray Signal from $Z_{N\geq 3}$ Dark Matter-Companion Models · Introduction · 0.83
Analyses have also been published in [ref] where they examine dark matter limits from M 31 and in [ref] where evidence for emission from a spatially extended halo around M 31 is presented.

VERITAS Observations Of M~31 (The Andromeda Galaxy) · Updated Fermi-LAT Analysis · 0.96

What it cites · 27 sentences without a confident label

Uses the method or tool of 1 paper

To derive the spectral energy distribution (SED) of M31, we divide the data into six energy bins from 200 MeV to 150 GeV (same as that done in [ref] ), and use gtlike to fit the parameters in each bin.

Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of Local Group galaxies: Detection of M31 and search for M33 · Data analysis · 0.90

Uses data or values from 5 papers

Here we adopt the extracted subhalo distribution from the high resolution simulation Phoenix [ref] .

Where will supersymmetric dark matter first be seen? · Substructures · 0.96
The measured virial mass of M31 ranges from $0.7×10^12$ M$_⊙$ to $2.1×10^12$ M$_⊙$ [ref] .

The Masses of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies · DM density distribution profile · 0.99
The measured virial mass of M31 ranges from $0.7×10^12$ M$_⊙$ to $2.1×10^12$ M$_⊙$ [ref] .

Inferring the Andromeda Galaxy's mass from its giant southern stream with Bayesian simulation sampling · DM density distribution profile · 0.99

Compares with 2 papers

For comparison, the black dot-dashed line shows the result from the combined analysis of Fermi-LAT observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies [ref] .

Dark Matter Constraints from Observations of 25 Milky Way Satellite Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope · Constraints on DM annihilation models · 0.99
Also shown for comparison are the SED for point source assumption (black squares) and that given in [ref] based on two year data (red triangles).

Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of Local Group galaxies: Detection of M31 and search for M33 · Data analysis · 0.98

Cites as background 22 papers

Currently the knowledge about the DM distribution, especially at small scales, largely relies on the numerical simulations [ref] .

Clumps and streams in the local dark matter distribution · Introduction · 0.81
There were many targets investigated to search for the possible DM signals based on Fermi-LAT data, including the Milky Way dwarf galaxies [ref] , clusters of galaxies [ref] , the center and halo of the Milky Way [ref] , the globular clusters [ref] and so on.

Gamma rays and neutrinos from dark matter annihilation in galaxy clusters · Introduction · 0.93
There were many targets investigated to search for the possible DM signals based on Fermi-LAT data, including the Milky Way dwarf galaxies [ref] , clusters of galaxies [ref] , the center and halo of the Milky Way [ref] , the globular clusters [ref] and so on.

Constraints on Dark Matter Annihilation in Clusters of Galaxies with the Fermi Large Area Telescope · Introduction · 0.93

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