Indication of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II

Physical Review Letters
Alex Geringer-SamethN Wyn Evans

Abstract

We present a search for γ-ray emission from the direction of the newly discovered dwarf galaxy Reticulum II. Using Fermi-LAT Collaboration data, we detect a signal that exceeds expected backgrounds between ∼2-10  GeV and is consistent with annihilation of dark matter for particle masses less than a few ×10^{2}  GeV. Modeling the background as a Poisson process based on Fermi-LAT diffuse models, and taking into account trial factors, we detect emission with p value less than 9.8×10^{-5} (>3.7σ). An alternative, model-independent treatment of the background reduces the significance, raising the p value to 9.7×10^{-3} (2.3σ). Even in this case, however, Reticulum II has the most significant γ-ray signal of any known dwarf galaxy. If Reticulum II has a dark-matter halo that is similar to those inferred for other nearby dwarfs, the signal is consistent with the s-wave relic abundance cross section for annihilation.

Citations

Apr 14, 2016·Royal Society Open Science·Asantha Cooray
Jul 28, 2016·Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society·Xian ChenJames Guillochon
Feb 10, 2018·Reports on Progress in Physics·Louis E Strigari
Mar 24, 2018·Reports on Progress in Physics·Leszek RoszkowskiSebastian Trojanowski
Sep 4, 2015·Nature·Alex Geringer-Sameth
May 27, 2017·Physical Review Letters·Ming-Yang CuiYi-Zhong Fan

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