No evidence for p - or d -wave dark matter annihilation from local large-scale structure

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Authors: Andrija Kostić, Deaglan J. Bartlett, Harry Desmond
Cited by: 4
References: 120

Abstract

If dark matter annihilates into standard model particles with a cross section which is velocity dependent, then Local Group dwarf galaxies will not be the best place to search for the resulting gamma ray emission. A greater flux would be produced by more distant and massive halos, with larger velocity dispersions. We construct full-sky predictions for the gamma ray emission from galaxy- and cluster-mass halos within ∼ 200 Mpc using a suite of constrained N -body simulations () based on the Bayesian Origin Reconstruction from Galaxies algorithm. Comparing to observations from the Large Area Telescope and marginalizing over reconstruction uncertainties and other astrophysical contributions to the flux, we obtain constraints on the cross section which are 2 (7) orders of magnitude tighter than those obtained from dwarf spheroidals for p -wave ( d -wave) annihilation. We find no evidence for either type of annihilation from dark matter particles with masses in the range m χ = 2 – 500 GeV / c 2 , for any channel. As an example, for annihilations producing bottom quarks with m χ = 10 GeV / c 2 , we find a 1 < 2.4 × 10 − 21 cm 3 s − 1 and a 2 < 3.0 × 10 − 18 cm 3 s − 1 at 95% confidence, where the product of the cross section, σ , and relative particle velocity, v , is given by σ v = a ℓ ( v / c ) 2 ℓ and ℓ = 1 , 2 for p - and d -wave annihilation, respectively. Our bounds, although failing to exclude the thermal relic cross section for velocity-dependent annihilation channels, are among the tightest to date.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies Cosmology and Gravitation Theories

Publication details

Journal / source
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Volume
113
Issue
6
Publication date
12 February 2026
Language
EN