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Dark matter annihilation radiation in hydrodynamic simulations of Milky Way haloes

Schaller, Matthieu; Frenk, Carlos S.; Theuns, Tom; Calore, Francesca; Bertone, Gianfranco; Bozorgnia, Nassim; Crain, Robert A.; Fattahi, Azadeh; Navarro, Julio F.; Sawala, Till; Schaye, Joop

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Authors

Francesca Calore

Gianfranco Bertone

Nassim Bozorgnia

Robert A. Crain

Azadeh Fattahi

Julio F. Navarro

Till Sawala

Joop Schaye



Abstract

We obtain predictions for the properties of cold dark matter annihilation radiation using high-resolution hydrodynamic zoom-in cosmological simulations of Milky Way-like galaxies (APOSTLE project) carried out as part of the ‘Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments’ (EAGLE) programme. Galactic haloes in the simulation have significantly different properties from those assumed in the ‘standard halo model’ often used in dark matter detection studies. The formation of the galaxy causes a contraction of the dark matter halo, whose density profile develops a steeper slope than the Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) profile between r ≈ 1.5 kpc and r ≈ 10 kpc. At smaller radii, r ≲ 1.5 kpc, the haloes develop a flatter than NFW slope. This unexpected feature may be specific to our particular choice of subgrid physics model but nevertheless the dark matter density profiles agree within 30 per cent as the mass resolution is increased by a factor 150. The inner regions of the haloes are almost perfectly spherical (axis ratios b/a > 0.97 within r = 1 kpc) and there is no offset larger than 45 pc between the centre of the stellar distribution and the centre of the dark halo. The morphology of the predicted dark matter annihilation radiation signal is in broad agreement with γ-ray observations at large Galactic latitudes (b ≳ 3°). At smaller angles, the inferred signal in one of our four galaxies is similar to that which is observed but it is significantly weaker in the other three.

Citation

Schaller, M., Frenk, C. S., Theuns, T., Calore, F., Bertone, G., Bozorgnia, N., …Schaye, J. (2016). Dark matter annihilation radiation in hydrodynamic simulations of Milky Way haloes. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 455(4), 4442-4451. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2667

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 10, 2015
Online Publication Date Dec 9, 2015
Publication Date Feb 1, 2016
Deposit Date Feb 22, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 455
Issue 4
Pages 4442-4451
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2667
Keywords Methods: numerical, Galaxy: centre, Cosmology: theory, Dark matter, Gamma-rays: galaxies.
Related Public URLs http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.02166

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.





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