Search for TeV decaying dark matter from the Virgo cluster of galaxies

Abstract

Galaxy clusters' dynamics constitute a major piece of evidence for the existence of dark matter in astrophysical structures. The decay or annihilation of dark matter particles is hypothesized to produce a steady flux of very-high-energy gamma rays correlated with the direction of a cluster of galaxies. The Virgo cluster, being only 16 Mpc away and spanning several degrees across the sky is an excellent target to search for signatures of particle dark matter interactions. The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, due to its wide field of view and sensitivity to gamma rays at an energy-scale of 300 GeV-100 TeV is well-suited to perform the aforementioned search. We perform a search from the Virgo cluster for gamma-ray emission, assuming various dark matter sub-structure models using 1523 days of HAWC data. Our results provide the strongest constraints on the decay life-time of dark matter for masses above 20 TeV.

Constraining decaying very heavy dark matter from galaxy clusters with 14 year Fermi-LAT data

“…Overall, they are slightly weaker than the strongest limits set by Virgo and Centaurus individually. This is driven JCAP03(2024)024 Comparisons between our limits and recent gamma-ray (MAGIC [52] and HAWC [53]) and neutrino (IceCube [63]) observations on galaxy clusters. by clusters with small J dec. .…”

“…For decaying dark matter, MAGIC has reported limits on τ χ in the mass range between 200 GeV and 200 TeV from the Perseus cluster using 400 hours of data between 2009 and 2017 [52]. HAWC has also performed a search from the Virgo cluster for dark matter masses between 1 TeV and 100 TeV using 1523 days of observation [53]. Using 6-year neutrino data, IceCube has constrained decaying dark matter in the mass range between 10 TeV and 10 PeV from observations of three clusters (Virgo, Coma, and Perseus) [63].…”

“…Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound systems in the Universe and host enormous dark matter halos. TeV gamma-ray telescopes, such as the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS), the Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) and the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, have searched for dark matter signals from different galaxy clusters and have placed stringent limits on dark matter annihilation and decay [48][49][50][51][52][53]. Future TeV gamma-ray telescopes are expected to extend the search for heavy dark matter.…”

“…Figure 9.Comparisons between our limits and recent gamma-ray (MAGIC[52] and HAWC[53]) and neutrino (IceCube[63]) observations on galaxy clusters.…”

News on Dark Matter from ICRC 2021

“…The limits are complementary to the ones from other experiments (especially for decaying DM), and their dependence on the DM density profile is mitigated by the large region of interest considered in the analysis. Other DM searches with HAWC have been presented in [20,21] focussing on the diffuse gamma-ray background, and clusters of galaxies. [16].…”