Strong Support for the Millisecond Pulsar Origin of the Galactic Center GeV Excess

Physical Review Letters
Richard BartelsChristoph Weniger

Abstract

Using γ-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, various groups have identified a clear excess emission in the Inner Galaxy, at energies around a few GeV. This excess resembles remarkably well a signal from dark-matter annihilation. One of the most compelling astrophysical interpretations is that the excess is caused by the combined effect of a previously undetected population of dim γ-ray sources. Because of their spectral similarity, the best candidates are millisecond pulsars. Here, we search for this hypothetical source population, using a novel approach based on wavelet decomposition of the γ-ray sky and the statistics of Gaussian random fields. Using almost seven years of Fermi-LAT data, we detect a clustering of photons as predicted for the hypothetical population of millisecond pulsar, with a statistical significance of 10.0σ. For plausible values of the luminosity function, this population explains 100% of the observed excess emission. We argue that other extragalactic or Galactic sources, a mismodeling of Galactic diffuse emission, or the thick-disk population of pulsars are unlikely to account for this observation.

References

May 1, 2015·Nature·Kerstin PerezAndreas Zoglauer
Feb 20, 2016·Physical Review Letters·Samuel K LeeWei Xue

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Citations

Apr 14, 2016·Royal Society Open Science·Asantha Cooray
Feb 10, 2018·Reports on Progress in Physics·Louis E Strigari
Jun 15, 2017·Reports on Progress in Physics·Graciela B Gelmini
Mar 6, 2018·Science Advances·Colin J ClarkMatthew Wood
Mar 24, 2018·Reports on Progress in Physics·Leszek RoszkowskiSebastian Trojanowski
Jan 24, 2018·Philosophical Transactions. Series A, Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences·Juan García-Bellido
Apr 2, 2019·Physical Review Letters·Francesca CalorePasquale Dario Serpico
Jun 15, 2016·Physical Review. D·Stuart L Shapiro, Jessie Shelton
Jan 11, 2020·Physical Review Letters·Rebecca K Leane, Tracy R Slatyer
Oct 6, 2020·Physical Review Letters·Rebecca K Leane, Tracy R Slatyer
Jul 1, 2020·Physical Review Letters·Yi-Ming ZhongPatrick J Fox
Mar 24, 2018·Physical Review Letters·Mariangela LisantiBenjamin R Safdi
Dec 24, 2018·Physical Review Letters·Joseph Silk
Feb 20, 2016·Physical Review Letters·Samuel K LeeWei Xue

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