Implications of the 1-MEV to 10-MEV Gamma-Ray Background - a Determination of SIGMA/0 or a New Particle
Abstract
Monoenergetic photons resulting from the decay of an unstable particle produce an observable spectrum because photons produced at different times are redshifted to different energies. It has been shown that the 1 to 10 MeV Gamma-Ray background is very well fitted by monoenergetic photons produced at a decay rate while the universe was young. The fit constrains the energy of the decay photon, the decay rate, and the number density of particles whose decay produces the photons. If the photons comprising the 1 to 10 MeV shoulder are produced by a decay, then they may result from either the radioactive decay of an unstable isotope or from the decay of a previously unidentified particle. If the photons result from a radioactive decay, the fit to the spectrum may be used to determine Omega(0), the current ratio of the average mass-energy density in the universe to the critical value.
- Publication:
-
Dark matter; Proceedings of the Twenty-third Rencontre de Moriond
- Pub Date:
- 1988
- Bibcode:
- 1988dama.conf..133D
- Keywords:
-
- Background Radiation;
- Cosmic Rays;
- Gamma Ray Astronomy;
- Nuclear Astrophysics;
- Computational Astrophysics;
- Gamma Ray Spectra;
- Red Shift;
- Astrophysics