Constraining Sterile Neutrino Dark Matter in the Milky Way Halo with Swift-XRT
Abstract
We present a search for sterile neutrino dark matter decay signals in the Milky Way's dark matter halo by considering the entirety of the Swift X-ray Telescope (Swift-XRT) data archive. After filtering the raw archive, we analyze a ~77 Ms data set containing the full field of view, as well as a ~41 Ms data set with point sources excised using the Swift-XRT Point Source catalog. We report nondetections of emission lines across the 3-6 keV continuum in both data sets, including at and around 3.5 keV. The point-source-excised data set is found to have higher sensitivity to faint dark matter decay signals due to its freedom from point-source contamination and is thus used to set constraints. Nondetections across the total data set's continuum are used to constrain the sterile neutrino dark matter parameter space, marginally strengthening existing X-ray constraints. Nondetections at ~3.5 keV in data subsets grouped by angular distance from the galactic center are used to constrain the 3.5 keV line's galactic intensity profile, providing the strongest constraints to date across ~1/4 of the galaxy.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2208.12271
- Bibcode:
- 2022ApJ...941....2S
- Keywords:
-
- Dark matter;
- Dark matter density;
- Warm dark matter;
- Milky Way dark matter halo;
- Diffuse x-ray background;
- X-ray astronomy;
- Cosmological neutrinos;
- Neutrino astronomy;
- Cosmology;
- Observational cosmology;
- Particle astrophysics;
- High energy astrophysics;
- 353;
- 354;
- 1787;
- 1049;
- 384;
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- 1100;
- 343;
- 1146;
- 96;
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- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to ApJ