Speaker
Description
In this talk, we summarize our research on stellar streams as a new and complementary target for dark matter (DM) searches with gamma rays.
Stellar streams whose progenitor is a dwarf galaxy (dG) are particularly interesting targets for DM searches, since dGs are thought to be highly DM-dominated systems. We expect these streams to have lost most of their DM content during the stretching process, yet a significant amount of DM should remain within their core. If the DM particles are Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), they could annihilate in the streams’ core, producing a detectable gamma-ray signal. In this work, we analyze data from the Large Area Telescope on board the NASA Fermi satellite (Fermi LAT) to look for a potential WIMP annihilation signal from the direction of an optimized sample of streams. In the absence of a signal, we place the first constraints on the WIMP parameter space obtained from these objects for several annihilation channels.
A key challenge in this analysis is the uncertainty in the DM density profile of the streams, which directly impacts the expected gamma-ray flux. To address this issue, we will also present our ongoing work in which we are using the Auriga suite of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations to model the DM distribution within disrupted dG streams. These simulations provide a more robust framework for interpreting our results and refining future DM searches with stellar streams.
| Main Contribution topic | Indirect detection |
|---|---|
| Secondary contribution topic | Cosmology Dark Matter |