A search for dark matter in the Galactic halo with HAWC

Authors

A. U. Abeysekara, The University of Utah
A. Albert, Los Alamos National Laboratory
R. Alfaro, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
C. Alvarez, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas
R. Arceo, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas
J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
D. Avila Rojas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
H. A.Ayala Solares, Pennsylvania State University
A. Becerril, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
E. Belmont-Moreno, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
S. Y. Benzvi, University of Rochester
A. Bernal, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
C. Brisbois, Michigan Technological University
K. S. Caballero-Mora, Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas
T. Capistrán, Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica
A. Carramiñana, Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica
S. Casanova, Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences
M. Castillo, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
U. Cotti, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo
J. Cotzomi, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla
C. De León, Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla
E. De La Fuente, Universidad de Guadalajara
R. Diaz Hernandez, Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica
B. L. Dingus, Los Alamos National Laboratory
M. A. Duvernois, University of Wisconsin-Madison
J. C. Díaz-Vélez, Universidad de Guadalajara
K. Engel, University of Maryland
O. Enríquez-Rivera, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
D. W. Fiorino, University of Maryland
H. Fleischhack, Michigan Technological University
N. Fraija, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
J. A. García-González, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-23-2018

Abstract

© 2018 The Author(s). The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) gamma-ray observatory is a wide field-of-view observatory sensitive to 500 GeV-100 TeV gamma rays and cosmic rays. With its observations over 2/3 of the sky every day, the HAWC observatory is sensitive to a wide variety of astrophysical sources, including possible gamma rays from dark matter. Dark matter annihilation and decay in the Milky Way Galaxy should produce gamma-ray signals across many degrees on the sky. The HAWC instantaneous field-of-view of 2 sr enables observations of extended regions on the sky, such as those from dark matter in the Galactic halo. Here we show limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section and decay lifetime from HAWC observations of the Galactic halo with 15 months of data. These are some of the most robust limits on TeV and PeV dark matter, largely insensitive to the dark matter morphology. These limits begin to constrain models in which PeV IceCube neutrinos are explained by dark matter which primarily decays into hadrons.

Publication Title

Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

Share

COinS