Dark matter annihilation factors in the Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal galaxies

The Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are among the best targets for the indirect detection of dark matter (DM) with γ-rays. The expected gamma-ray flux depends on the so-called 'J-factor', the integral of the squared DM density along the line-of-sight. Using a large number...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2016-05, Vol.718 (4), p.42005
Main Authors: Bonnivard, V, Combet, C, Maurin, D, Walker, M G, Geringer-Sameth, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dark matter
Density
Dwarf galaxies
Gamma rays
Kinematics
Physics
Spheroidal galaxies
Target detection
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are among the best targets for the indirect detection of dark matter (DM) with γ-rays. The expected gamma-ray flux depends on the so-called 'J-factor', the integral of the squared DM density along the line-of-sight. Using a large number of simulated dSphs, we have defined an optimized Jeans analysis setup for the reconstruction of the DM density with stellar-kinematic data. Employing this setup, we provide here estimates of astrophysical J-factors for twenty-two Galactic dSphs, including the newly discovered Reticulum II. We finally identify several criteria that may indicate a contamination of a kinematic dataset by interlopers, leading to unreliable J-factors. We find that the kinematic sample of Segue I, one of the closest dSph, might be affected by this issue.
ISSN:1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/718/4/042005