Search

The spectra of stable particles produced from dark matter (DM) are one of the most important ingredients to calculate the fluxes for DM indirect detection experiments. At energies above a few GeV, most of the particles are produced following a complex sequence of phenomena including resonance decays, QED and QCD final-state radiation, radiation of weak gauge bosons, hadronization and hadron decays. In this contribution, we discuss improvements on the calculation of the energy spectra at the source using state-of-the-art tools that include effects that were not taken previously into account. We include helicity information of the particles produced in the annihilation channels, which leads to proper inclusion of electroweak radiation during the entire showering history. These effects are taken into account using the Vincia, which is based on the helicity-dependent antenna shower formalism. Off-shell contributions are also taken into account for annihilation channels into $WW$ and $ZZ$ through the four-body processes into fermions and for DM masses below the gauge boson mass. We also revisit the tune of the Lund fragmentation function parameters in Pythia using LEP data at the $Z$-boson pole. The spectra of cosmic messengers are provided for DM masses between 5 GeV and 100 GeV and are publicly distributed in this \href{https://github.com/ajueid/CosmiXs.git}{GitHub repository}., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Prepared for the proceedings of the 29th International Symposium on Particles, Strings and Cosmology (PASCOS 2024), Quy Nhon, Vietnam, 7-13 July, 2024

Our understanding of the $\gamma$-ray sky has improved dramatically in the past decade, however, the unresolved $\gamma$-ray background (UGRB) still has a potential wealth of information about the faintest $\gamma$-ray sources pervading the Universe. Statistical cross-correlations with tracers of cosmic structure can indirectly identify the populations that most characterize the $\gamma$-ray background. In this study, we analyze the angular correlation between the $\gamma$-ray background and the matter distribution in the Universe as traced by gravitational lensing, leveraging more than a decade of observations from the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) and 3 years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We detect a correlation at signal-to-noise ratio of 8.9. Most of the statistical significance comes from large scales, demonstrating, for the first time, that a substantial portion of the UGRB aligns with the mass clustering of the Universe as traced by weak lensing. Blazars provide a plausible explanation for this signal, especially if those contributing to the correlation reside in halos of large mass ($\sim 10^{14} M_{\odot}$) and account for approximately 30-40 % of the UGRB above 10 GeV. Additionally, we observe a preference for a curved $\gamma$-ray energy spectrum, with a log-parabolic shape being favored over a power-law. We also discuss the possibility of modifications to the blazar model and the inclusion of additional $gamma$-ray sources, such as star-forming galaxies or particle dark matter., Comment: 34 pages, 15 figures

The detection of cosmic antideuterons ($\overline{\rm D}$) at kinetic energies below a few GeV/n could provide a smoking gun signature for dark matter (DM). However, the theoretical uncertainties of coalescence models have represented so far one of the main limiting factors for precise predictions of the $\overline{\rm D}$ flux. In this Letter we present a novel calculation of the $\overline{\rm D}$ source spectra, based on the Wigner formalism, for which we implement the Argonne $v_{18}$ antideuteron wavefunction that does not have any free parameters related to the coalescence process. We show that the Argonne Wigner model excellently reproduces the $\overline{\rm D}$ multiplicity measured by ALEPH at the $Z$-boson pole, which is usually adopted to tune the coalescence models based on different approaches. Our analysis is based on Pythia~8 Monte Carlo event generator and the state-of-the-art Vincia shower algorithm. We succeed, with our model, to reduce the current theoretical uncertainty on the prediction of the $\overline{\rm D}$ source spectra to a few percent, for $\overline{\rm D}$ kinetic energies relevant to DM searches with GAPS and AMS, and for DM masses above a few tens of GeV. This result implies that the theoretical uncertainties due to the coalescence process are no longer the main limiting factor in the predictions. We provide the tabulated source spectra for all the relevant DM annihilation/decay channels and DM masses between 5 GeV and 100 TeV, on the CosmiXs github repository (https://github.com/ajueid/CosmiXs.git)., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Tabulated data for Antideuteron fluxes at production can be found in this https://github.com/ajueid/CosmiXs

The energy spectra of particles produced from dark matter (DM) annihilation or decay are one of the fundamental ingredients to calculate the predicted fluxes of cosmic rays and radiation searched for in indirect DM detection. We revisit the calculation of the source spectra for annihilating and decaying DM using the Vincia shower algorithm in Pythia to include QED and QCD final state radiation and diagrams for the Electroweak (EW) corrections with massive bosons, not present in the default Pythia shower model. We take into account the spin information of the particles during the entire EW shower and the off-shell contributions from massive gauge bosons. Furthermore, we perform a dedicated tuning of the Vincia and Pythia parameters to LEP data on the production of pions, photons, and hyperons at the $Z$ resonance and discuss the underlying uncertainties. To enable the use of our results in DM studies, we provide the tabulated source spectra for the most relevant cosmic messenger particles, namely antiprotons, positrons, $\gamma$ rays and the three neutrino flavors, for all the fermionic and bosonic channels and DM masses between 5 GeV and 100 TeV, on https://github.com/ajueid/CosmiXs.git., Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables

The singlet scalar Higgs portal model provides one of the simplest explanations of dark matter in our Universe. Its Higgs resonant region, $m_\text{DM}\approx m_h/2$, has gained particular attention, being able to reconcile the tension between the relic density measurement and direct detection constraints. Interestingly, this region is also preferred as an explanation of the Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray Galactic center excess. We perform a detailed study of this model using $\gamma$-ray data from the Galactic center and from dwarf spheroidal galaxies and combine them with cosmic-ray antiproton data from the AMS-02 experiment that shows a compatible excess. In the calculation of the relic density, we take into account effects of early kinetic decoupling relevant for resonant annihilation. The model provides excellent fits to the astrophysical data either in the case the dark matter candidate constitutes all or a subdominant fraction of the observed relic density. We show projections for future direct detection and collider experiments to probe these scenarios., Comment: 20 pages, 14 figures. For the SingletScalar_DM package, see https://github.com/dimauromattia/SingletScalar_DM

Clusters of galaxies are the largest gravitationally-bound systems in the Universe. Their dynamics are dominated by dark matter (DM), which makes them among the best targets for indirect DM searches. We analyze 12 years of data collected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT) in the direction of 49 clusters of galaxies selected for their proximity to the Earth and their high X-ray flux, which makes them the most promising targets. We first create physically motivated models for the DM density around each cluster considering different assumptions for the substructure distribution. Then we perform a combined search for a $\gamma$-ray signal in the {\it Fermi}-LAT data between 500 MeV and 1 TeV. We find a signal of $\gamma$ rays potentially associated with DM that is at a statistical significance of $2.5\sigma-3.0\sigma$ when considering a slope for the subhalo mass distribution $\alpha=1.9$ and minimum mass of $M_{\rm{min}}=10^{-6}$ $M_{\odot}$. The best-fit DM mass and annihilation cross-sections for a $b\bar{b}$ annihilation channel are $m_{\chi}=40-60$ GeV and $\langle \sigma v \rangle = (2-4) \times 10^{-25}$ cm$^3$/s. When we consider $\alpha=2.0$ and $M_{\rm{min}}=10^{-9}$ $M_{\odot}$, the best-fit of the cross section reduces to $\langle \sigma v \rangle = (4-10) \times 10^{-26}$ cm$^3$/s. For both DM substructure models there is a tension between the values of $\langle \sigma v \rangle$ that we find and the upper limits obtained with the non-detection of a $\gamma$-ray flux from Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. This signal is thus more likely associated with $\gamma$ rays produced in the intracluster region by cosmic rays colliding with gas and photon fields., Comment: 27 Pages, 13 Figures. Accepted for publication in the PRD journal

Sub-GeV dark matter particles can annihilate or decay producing e^\pm pairs which upscatter the low-energy photon fields in the Galaxy and generate an X-ray emission (via the Inverse Compton effect). Using X-ray data from Xmm-Newton, Integral, NuStar and Suzaku, we derive new constraints on this class of dark matter (DM). In the annihilation case, our new bounds are the strongest available for DM masses above 180 MeV, reaching < 10^-28 cm^3/s for m_DM ~ 1 GeV. In the decay case, our bounds are the strongest to date over a large fraction of the considered mass range, constraining tau > 10^28 s for m_DM ~ 1 GeV and improving by up to 3 orders of magnitude upon existing limits., Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures

We reconstruct the extra-galactic gamma-ray source-count distribution, or $dN/dS$, of resolved and unresolved sources by adopting machine learning techniques. Specifically, we train a convolutional neural network on synthetic 2-dimensional sky-maps, which are built by varying parameters of underlying source-counts models and incorporate the Fermi-LAT instrumental response functions. The trained neural network is then applied to the Fermi-LAT data, from which we estimate the source count distribution down to flux levels a factor of 50 below the Fermi-LAT threshold. We perform our analysis using 14 years of data collected in the $(1,10)$ GeV energy range. The results we obtain show a source count distribution which, in the resolved regime, is in excellent agreement with the one derived from catalogued sources, and then extends as $dN/dS \sim S^{-2}$ in the unresolved regime, down to fluxes of $5 \cdot 10^{-12}$ cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. The neural network architecture and the devised methodology have the flexibility to enable future analyses to study the energy dependence of the source-count distribution., Comment: 26 pages + Appendix, 28 figures

We summarize the second radio synchrotron background workshop, which took place June 15-17, 2022 in Barolo, Italy. This meeting was convened because available measurements of the diffuse radio zero level continue to suggest that it is several times higher than can be attributed to known Galactic and extragalactic sources and processes, rendering it the least well understood electromagnetic background at present and a major outstanding question in astrophysics. The workshop agreed on the next priorities for investigations of this phenomenon, which include searching for evidence of the Radio Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, carrying out cross-correlation analyses of radio emission with other tracers, and supporting the completion of the 310 MHz absolutely calibrated sky map project., Comment: 34 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables, accepted to PASP, updated to in press version

We consider the cosmology and phenomenology of a dark photon portal to a simple dark sector consisting of a single, light, fermionic dark matter particle species with mass in the MeV range. We entertain three possible kinetic mixing structures of a new Abelian gauge group U(1)$_{\text{dark}}$ with the visible sector through U(1)$_{\text{e.m.}}$, U(1)$_{\text{Y}}$ and T[SU(2)$_{\text{L}}$]. We assume the dark photon to be massive and around the MeV scale, thus close to the mass scale of the dark matter candidate. We compute the dark matter relic density via freeze-out and freeze-in, entertaining the additional possibilities of (i) a late inflationary period that could dilute the dark matter yield of heavy candidates, and (ii) additional production modes, for models with under-abundant thermal production. We explore the parameter space compatible with a variety of experimental and astrophysical bounds, and discuss prospects for discovery with new CMB probes and MeV gamma-ray telescopes.

The search for a particle dark matter signal in terms of radiation produced by dark matter annihilation or decay has to cope with the extreme faintness of the predicted signal and the presence of masking astrophysical backgrounds. It has been shown that using the correlated information between the dark matter distribution in the Universe with the fluctuations of the cosmic radiation fields has the potential to allow setting apart a pure dark matter signal from astrophysical emissions, since spatial fluctuations in the radiation field due to astrophysical sources and dark matter emission have different features. The cross-correlation technique has been proposed and adopted for dark matter studies by looking at dark matter halos (overdensities). In this paper we extend the technique by focusing on the information on dark matter distribution offered by cosmic voids, and by looking specifically at the gamma-ray dark matter emission: we show that, while being underdense and therefore producing a reduced emission as compared to halos, nevertheless in voids the relative size of the cross-correlation signal due to decaying dark matter vs. astrophysical sources is significantly more favourable, producing signal-to-background ratios $S/B$ (even significantly) larger than 1 for decay lifetimes up to $2 \times 10^{30}$ s. This is at variance with the case of halos, where $S/B$ is typically (even much) smaller than 1. We show that forthcoming galaxy surveys such as Euclid combined with future generation gamma-ray detectors with improved specifications have the ability to provide a hint of such a signal with a predicted significance up to $5.7\sigma$ for galaxies and $1.6\sigma$ for the cosmic shear. The bound on the dark matter lifetime attainable exploiting voids is predicted to improve on current bounds in a mass range for the WIMP of $25\div900$ GeV., Comment: 29 + 6 pages + references, 16 figures

We analyze the angular power spectrum (APS) of the unresolved gamma-ray background (UGRB) emission and combine it with the measured properties of the resolved gamma-ray sources of the Fermi-LAT 4FGL catalog. Our goals are to dissect the composition of the gamma-ray sky and to establish the relevance of different classes of source populations of active galactic nuclei in determining the observed size of the UGRB anisotropy, especially at low energies. We find that, under physical assumptions for the spectral energy dispersion, i.e. by using the 4FGL catalog data as a prior, two populations are required to fit APS data, namely flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) at low energies and BL Lacs (BLLs) at higher energies. The inferred luminosity functions agree well with the extrapolation of the FSRQ and BLL ones obtained from the 4FLG catalog. We use these luminosity functions to calculate the UGRB intensity from blazars, finding a contribution of 20% at 1GeV and 30% above 10 GeV. Finally, bounds on an additional gamma-ray emission due to annihilating dark matter are derived., Comment: 23 pages, 13 figures, v2: updated to the published version, results are unchanged

Astroparticle physics is undergoing a profound transformation, due to a series of extraordinary new results, such as the discovery of high-energy cosmic neutrinos with IceCube, the direct detection of gravitational waves with LIGO and Virgo, and many others. This white paper is the result of a collaborative effort that involved hundreds of theoretical astroparticle physicists and cosmologists, under the coordination of the European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory (EuCAPT). Addressed to the whole astroparticle physics community, it explores upcoming theoretical opportunities and challenges for our field of research, with particular emphasis on the possible synergies among different subfields, and the prospects for solving the most fundamental open questions with multi-messenger observations., Comment: White paper of the European Consortium for Astroparticle Theory (EuCAPT). 135 authors, 400 endorsers, 133 pages, 1382 references

Diffuse filaments connect galaxy clusters to form the cosmic web. Detecting these filaments could yield information on the magnetic field strength, cosmic ray population and temperature of intercluster gas, yet, the faint and large-scale nature of these bridges makes direct detections very challenging. Using multiple independent all-sky radio and X-ray maps we stack pairs of luminous red galaxies as tracers for cluster pairs. For the first time, we detect an average surface brightness between the clusters from synchrotron (radio) and thermal (X-ray) emission with $\gtrsim 5\sigma$ significance, on physical scales larger than observed to date ($\geq 3\,$Mpc). We obtain a synchrotron spectral index of $\alpha \simeq -1.0$ and estimates of the average magnetic field strength of $ 30 \leq B \leq 60 \,$nG, derived from both equipartition and Inverse Compton arguments, implying a 5 to 15$\,$per cent degree of field regularity when compared with Faraday rotation measure estimates. While the X-ray detection is inline with predictions, the average radio signal comes out higher than predicted by cosmological simulations and dark matter annihilation and decay models. This discovery demonstrates that there are connective structures between mass concentrations that are significantly magnetised, and the presence of sufficient cosmic rays to produce detectable synchrotron radiation., Comment: 21 pages, 3 tables, 14 figures. Accepted by MNRAS May 2021

The extragalactic background light is comprised of the cumulative radiation from all galaxies across the history of the universe. The angular power spectrum of the anisotropies of such a background at near-infrared (IR) frequencies lacks of a complete understanding and shows a robust excess which cannot be easily explained with known sources. Dark matter in the form of axion-like particles (ALPs) with a mass around the electronvolt will decay into two photons with wavelengths in the near-IR band, possibly contributing to the background intensity. We compute the near-IR background angular power spectrum including emissions from galaxies, as well as the contributions from the intra-halo light and ALP decay, and compare it to measurements from the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer. We find that the preferred values for the ALP mass and ALP-photon coupling to explain the excess are in tension with star cooling data and observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies., Comment: Appendices added; version published in JCAP

Light Dark Matter (DM), defined here as having a mass between 1 MeV and about 1 GeV, is an interesting possibility both theoretically and phenomenologically, at one of the frontiers of current progress in the field of DM searches. Its indirect detection via gamma-rays is challenged by the scarcity of experiments in the MeV-GeV region. We look therefore at lower-energy X-ray data from the Integral telescope, and compare them with the predicted DM flux. We derive bounds which are competitive with existing ones from other techniques. Crucially, we include the contribution from inverse Compton scattering on galactic radiation fields and the CMB, which leads to much stronger constraints than in previous studies for DM masses above 20 MeV., Comment: 16 pp+refs, 7 figs. v2: added comments on radiative decays and positron in-flight annihilation. Results unchanged. v3: comments added, on astrophysical uncertainties, on more aggressive bounds including background and on justifying adopted approximations. Results unchanged. v4: figure on astrophysical uncertainties added. Matches PRD version. v5: typo in the units of plots in fig. 2 and 3 fixed

The precise measurement of cosmic-ray antinuclei serves as an important means for identifying the nature of dark matter and other new astrophysical phenomena, and could be used with other cosmic-ray species to understand cosmic-ray production and propagation in the Galaxy. For instance, low-energy antideuterons would provide a "smoking gun" signature of dark matter annihilation or decay, essentially free of astrophysical background. Studies in recent years have emphasized that models for cosmic-ray antideuterons must be considered together with the abundant cosmic antiprotons and any potential observation of antihelium. Therefore, a second dedicated Antideuteron Workshop was organized at UCLA in March 2019, bringing together a community of theorists and experimentalists to review the status of current observations of cosmic-ray antinuclei, the theoretical work towards understanding these signatures, and the potential of upcoming measurements to illuminate ongoing controversies. This review aims to synthesize this recent work and present implications for the upcoming decade of antinuclei observations and searches. This includes discussion of a possible dark matter signature in the AMS-02 antiproton spectrum, the most recent limits from BESS Polar-II on the cosmic antideuteron flux, and reports of candidate antihelium events by AMS-02; recent collider and cosmic-ray measurements relevant for antinuclei production models; the state of cosmic-ray transport models in light of AMS-02 and Voyager data; and the prospects for upcoming experiments, such as GAPS. This provides a roadmap for progress on cosmic antinuclei signatures of dark matter in the coming years., Comment: 45 pages, 14 figures

The global contribution of unresolved gamma-ray point sources to the extragalactic gamma-ray background has been recently measured down to gamma-ray fluxes lower than those reached with standard source detection techniques, and by employing the statistical properties of the observed gamma-ray counts. We investigate and exploit the complementarity of the information brought by the one-point statistics of photon counts (using more than 10 years of Fermi-LAT data) and by the recent measurement of the angular power spectrum of the unresolved gamma-ray background (based on 8 years of Fermi-LAT data). We determine, under the assumption that the source-count distribution of the brightest unresolved objects is dominated by blazars, their gamma-ray luminosity function and spectral energy distribution down to fluxes almost two orders of magnitude smaller than the threshold for detecting resolved sources. The different approaches provide consistent predictions for the gamma-ray luminosity function of blazars, and they show a significant complementarity., Comment: Matches the published version; extended discussion on detection efficiency, 4FGL fit improved, comments added. Main results and conclusions unchanged

Neutral hydrogen (HI) intensity mapping traces the large-scale distribution of matter in the Universe and therefore should correlate with the gamma-ray emission originated from particle dark matter annihilation or from active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies, since the related processes occur in the same cosmic structures hosting HI. In this paper, we derive the cross-correlation signal between the brightness temperature of the 21-cm line emission of the HI spin-flip transition in the Universe and the unresolved gamma-ray background. Specifically, we derive forecasts for the cross-correlation signal by focussing on the opportunities offered by the combination of the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) gamma-ray sensitivity with the expectations of the HI intensity mapping measurements from future radio telescopes, for which we concentrate on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and MeerKAT, one of its precursors. We find that the combination of MeerKAT with the current Fermi-LAT statistics has the potential to provide a first hint of the cross-correlation signal originated by astrophysical sources, with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 3.7. With SKA Phase 1 and SKA Phase 2, the SNR is predicted to increase up to 5.7 and 8.2, respectively. The bounds on dark matter properties attainable with SKA combined with the current statistics of Fermi-LAT are predicted to be comparable to those obtained from other techniques able to explore the unresolved components of the gamma-ray background. The enhanced capabilities of SKA Phase 2, combined with a future generation gamma-ray telescope with improved specifications, can allow us to investigate the whole mass window for weakly interacting massive particles up to the TeV scale., Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures

In recent years, many gamma-ray sources have been identified, yet the unresolved component hosts valuable information on the faintest emission. In order to extract it, a cross-correlation with gravitational tracers of matter in the Universe has been shown to be a promising tool. We report here the first identification of a cross-correlation signal between gamma rays and the distribution of mass in the Universe probed by weak gravitational lensing. We use the Dark Energy Survey Y1 weak lensing catalogue and the Fermi Large Area Telescope 9-year gamma-ray data, obtaining a signal-to-noise ratio of 5.3. The signal is mostly localised at small angular scales and high gamma-ray energies, with a hint of correlation at extended separation. Blazar emission is likely the origin of the small-scale effect. We investigate implications of the large-scale component in terms of astrophysical sources and particle dark matter emission., Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, v2: text re-arranged, typos corrected, slight improvement in the detection significance, matching version accepted for publication in PRL

We report the identification of a positive cross-correlation signal between the unresolved $\gamma$-ray emission, measured by the \emph{Fermi} Large Area Telescope, and four different galaxy cluster catalogues. The selected catalogues peak at low-redshift and span different frequency bands, including infrared, optical and X-rays. The signal-to-noise ratio of the detected cross-correlation amounts to 3.5 in the most significant case. We investigate and comment about its possible origin, in terms of compact $\gamma$-ray emission from AGNs inside clusters or diffuse emission from the intracluster medium. The analysis has been performed by introducing an accurate estimation of the cross-correlation power-spectrum covariance matrix, built with mock realisations of the gamma and galaxy cluster maps. Different methods to produce the mock realizations starting from the data maps have been investigated and compared, identifying suitable techniques which can be generalized to other cross-correlation studies., Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures

Since the science white paper of the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) published on arXiv in 2019 [e-Print: 1905.02773 (astro-ph.HE)], LHAASO has completed the transition from a project to an operational gamma-ray astronomical observatory LHAASO is a new generation multi-component facility located in Daocheng, Sichuan province of China, at an altitude of 4410 meters. It aims at measuring with unprecedented sensitivity the spectrum, composition, and anisotropy of cosmic rays in the energy range between 10$^{12}$ and 10$^{18}$~eV, and acting simultaneously as a wide aperture (one stereoradiant) continuously operating gamma-ray telescope in the energy range between 10$^{11}$ and $10^{15}$~eV with the designed sensitivity of 1.3\% of the Crab Unit (CU) above 100 TeV. LHAASO's capability of measuring simultaneously different shower components (electrons, muons, and Cherenkov/fluorescence light), will allow it to investigate the origin, acceleration, and propagation of CR through measurement of the energy spectrum, elemental composition, and anisotropy with unprecedented resolution. The remarkable sensitivity of LHAASO will play a key role in CR physics and gamma-ray astronomy for a general and comprehensive exploration of the high energy universe and will allow important studies of fundamental physics (such as indirect dark matter search, Lorentz invariance violation, quantum gravity) and solar and heliospheric physics. The LHAASO Collaboration organized an editorial working group and finished all editorial work of this science book, to summarize the instrumental features and outline the prospects of scientific researches with the LHAASO experiment., Comment: This document is a collaborative effort, 185 pages, 110 figures

The gamma-ray sky has been observed with unprecedented accuracy in the last decade by the Fermi large area telescope (LAT), allowing us to resolve and understand the high-energy Universe. The nature of the remaining unresolved emission (unresolved gamma-ray background, UGRB) below the LAT source detection threshold can be uncovered by characterizing the amplitude and angular scale of the UGRB fluctuation field. This work presents a measurement of the UGRB autocorrelation angular power spectrum based on eight years of Fermi LAT Pass 8 data products. The analysis is designed to be robust against contamination from resolved sources and noise systematics. The sensitivity to subthreshold sources is greatly enhanced with respect to previous measurements. We find evidence (with $\sim$3.7$\sigma$ significance) that the scenario in which two classes of sources contribute to the UGRB signal is favored over a single class. A double power law with exponential cutoff can explain the anisotropy energy spectrum well, with photon indices of the two populations being 2.55 $\pm$ 0.23 and 1.86 $\pm$ 0.15., Comment: 8 + 12 (SOM) pages, Contact author: Michela Negro (michela.negro@to.infn.it). (Typos in Tab. VII in previous versions)

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is a planned large radio interferometer designed to operate over a wide range of frequencies, and with an order of magnitude greater sensitivity and survey speed than any current radio telescope. The SKA will address many important topics in astronomy, ranging from planet formation to distant galaxies. However, in this work, we consider the perspective of the SKA as a facility for studying physics. We review four areas in which the SKA is expected to make major contributions to our understanding of fundamental physics: cosmic dawn and reionisation; gravity and gravitational radiation; cosmology and dark energy; and dark matter and astroparticle physics. These discussions demonstrate that the SKA will be a spectacular physics machine, which will provide many new breakthroughs and novel insights on matter, energy and spacetime., Comment: 69 pages, PASA, in press

With a decade of gamma-ray data from the Fermi-LAT telescope, we can now hope to answer how well we know the local Universe at gamma-ray frequencies. On the other hand, with gamma-ray data alone it is not possible to directly access the distance of the emission and to point out the origin of unresolved sources. This obstacle can be overcome by cross-correlating the gamma-ray data with catalogs of objects with well-determined redshifts and positions. In this work, we cross-correlate Fermi-LAT skymaps with the 2MPZ catalog to study the local $z<0.2$ gamma-ray Universe, where about ten percent of the total unresolved gamma-ray background is produced. We find the signal to be dominated by AGN emissions, while star forming galaxies provide a subdominant contribution. Possible hints for a particle DM signal are discussed., Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures

We summarize the radio synchrotron background workshop that took place July 19-21, 2017 at the University of Richmond. This first scientific meeting dedicated to the topic was convened because current measurements of the diffuse radio monopole reveal a surface brightness that is several times higher than can be straightforwardly explained by known Galactic and extragalactic sources and processes, rendering it by far the least well understood photon background at present. It was the conclusion of a majority of the participants that the radio monopole level is at or near that reported by the ARCADE 2 experiment and inferred from several absolutely calibrated zero level lower frequency radio measurements, and unanimously agreed that the production of this level of surface brightness, if confirmed, represents a major outstanding question in astrophysics. The workshop reached a consensus on the next priorities for investigations of the radio synchrotron background., Comment: 19 pages, 12 figures, updated to journal version

Cosmic rays are an important tool to study dark matter annihilation in our Galaxy. Recently, a possible hint for dark matter annihilation was found in the antiproton spectrum measured by AMS-02, even though the result might be affected by theoretical uncertainties. A complementary way to test its dark matter interpretation would be the observation of low-energy antinuclei in cosmic rays. We determine the chances to observe antideuterons with GAPS and AMS-02, and the implications for the ongoing AMS-02 antihelium searches. We find that the corresponding antideuteron signal is within the GAPS and AMS-02 detection potential. If, more conservatively, the putative signal was considered as an upper limit on DM annihilation, our results would indicate the highest possible fluxes for antideuterons and antihelium compatible with current antiproton data., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, matches published version

e-ASTROGAM (enhanced ASTROGAM) is a breakthrough Observatory space mission, with a detector composed by a Silicon tracker, a calorimeter, and an anticoincidence system, dedicated to the study of the non-thermal Universe in the photon energy range from 0.3 MeV to 3 GeV - the lower energy limit can be pushed to energies as low as 150 keV for the tracker, and to 30 keV for calorimetric detection. The mission is based on an advanced space-proven detector technology, with unprecedented sensitivity, angular and energy resolution, combined with polarimetric capability. Thanks to its performance in the MeV-GeV domain, substantially improving its predecessors, e-ASTROGAM will open a new window on the non-thermal Universe, making pioneering observations of the most powerful Galactic and extragalactic sources, elucidating the nature of their relativistic outflows and their effects on the surroundings. With a line sensitivity in the MeV energy range one to two orders of magnitude better than previous generation instruments, e-ASTROGAM will determine the origin of key isotopes fundamental for the understanding of supernova explosion and the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. The mission will provide unique data of significant interest to a broad astronomical community, complementary to powerful observatories such as LIGO-Virgo-GEO600-KAGRA, SKA, ALMA, E-ELT, TMT, LSST, JWST, Athena, CTA, IceCube, KM3NeT, and LISA., Comment: Published on Journal of High Energy Astrophysics (Elsevier)

The observation of GeV neutrinos coming from the Sun would be an unmistakable signal of dark matter. Current neutrino detectors have so far failed to detect such a signal, however, and bounds from direct and indirect dark matter searches may significantly restrict the possibility of observing it in future experiments such as Hyper-Kamiokande or IceCube-Gen2. In this work, we assess in the light of current data and of expected experimental sensitivities, the prospects for the detection of a neutrino signal from dark matter annihilations in the Sun. To be as general as possible, equilibrium between the capture and the annihilation rates in the Sun is not assumed in our analysis; instead, the dark matter scattering and annihilation cross sections are taken as free and independent parameters. We consider capture via both spin-dependent and spin-independent interactions, and annihilations into three representative final states: $b\bar b$, $W^+W^-$, and $\tau^+\tau^-$. We find that when the capture in the Sun is dominated by spin-independent interactions, current direct detection bounds already preclude the observation of a neutrino signal in future experiments. For capture via spin-dependent interactions, a strong complementarity is observed, over most of the parameter space, between future neutrino detectors and planned direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments, such as PICO-500 and CTA. In this case, we also identify some regions of the parameter space that can be probed, via the neutrino flux from the Sun, only by future neutrino experiments., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures

The flux of positrons and electrons ($e^+ + e^-$) has been measured by the $Fermi$ Large Area Telescope (LAT) in the energy range between 7 GeV and 2 TeV. We discuss a number of interpretations of Pass 8 $Fermi$-LAT $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum, combining electron and positron emission from supernova remnants (SNRs) and pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe), or produced by the collision of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium. We find that the $Fermi$-LAT spectrum is compatible with the sum of electrons from a smooth SNR population, positrons from cataloged PWNe, and a secondary component. If we include in our analysis constraints from AMS-02 positron spectrum, we obtain a slightly worse fit to the $e^+ + e^-$ $Fermi$-LAT spectrum, depending on the propagation model. As an additional scenario, we replace the smooth SNR component within 0.7 kpc with the { individual sources} found in Green's catalog of Galactic SNRs. We find that separate consideration of far and near sources helps to reproduce the $e^+ + e^-$ $Fermi$-LAT spectrum. However, we show that the fit degrades when the radio constraints on the positron emission from Vela SNR (which is the main contributor at high energies) are taken into account. We find that a break in the power-law injection spectrum at about 100 GeV can also reproduce the measured $e^+ + e^-$ spectrum} and, among the cosmic-ray propagation models that we consider, no reasonable break of the power-law dependence of the diffusion coefficient can modify the electron flux enough to reproduce the observed shape., Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 845, Number 2

Photon counts statistics have recently been proven to provide a sensitive observable for characterizing gamma-ray source populations and for measuring the composition of the gamma-ray sky. In this work, we generalize the use of the standard 1-point probability distribution function (1pPDF) to decompose the high-latitude gamma-ray emission observed with Fermi-LAT into: (i) point-source contributions, (ii) the Galactic foreground contribution, and (iii) a diffuse isotropic background contribution. We analyze gamma-ray data in five adjacent energy bands between 1 and 171 GeV. We measure the source-count distribution dN/dS as a function of energy, and demonstrate that our results extend current measurements from source catalogs to the regime of so far undetected sources. Our method improves the sensitivity for resolving point-source populations by about one order of magnitude in flux. The dN/dS distribution as a function of flux is found to be compatible with a broken power law. We derive upper limits on further possible breaks as well as the angular power of unresolved sources. We discuss the composition of the gamma-ray sky and capabilities of the 1pPDF method., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Proceedings, 6th International Symposium on High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy (Gamma2016), Heidelberg, Germany, July 11-15, 2016

Recently, a new measurement of the auto- and cross-correlation angular power spectrum (APS) of the isotropic gamma-ray background was performed, based on 81 months of data of the Fermi Large-Area Telescope (LAT). Here, we fit, for the first time, the new APS data with a model describing the emission of unresolved blazars. These sources are expected to dominate the anisotropy signal. The model we employ in our analysis reproduces well the blazars resolved by Fermi LAT. When considering the APS obtained by masking the sources in the 3FGL catalogue, we find that unresolved blazars under-produce the measured APS below $\sim$1 GeV. Contrary to past results, this suggests the presence of a new contribution to the low-energy APS, with a significance of, at least, 5$\sigma$. The excess can be ascribed to a new class of faint gamma-ray emitters. If we consider the APS obtained by masking the sources in the 2FGL catalogue, there is no under-production of the APS below 1 GeV, but the new source class is still preferred over the blazars-only scenario (with a significance larger than 10$\sigma$). The properties of the new source class and the level of anisotropies induced in the isotropic gamma-ray background are the same, independent of the APS data used. In particular, the new gamma-ray emitters must have a soft energy spectrum, with a spectral index ranging, approximately, from 2.7 to 3.2. This complicates their interpretation in terms of known sources, since, normally, star-forming and radio galaxies are observed with a harder spectrum. The new source class identified here is also expected to contribute significantly to the intensity of the isotropic gamma-ray background., Comment: 21 pages, 14 figures

The identification of a solution to the dark matter problem has many arrows to its bow: if dark matter is a new elementary particle, both laboratory experiments and astrophysics can bring relevant and complementary pieces of information, that than can be confronted and composed to solve this intriguing puzzle. Although we currently do not have a unique and obvious target for the DM particle, we can rely on a broad range of ideas, tools and methods that make the investigation of dark matter a multi-frequency, multi-messenger and multi-techniques integrated endeavour., Comment: XXV ECRS 2016 Proceedings - eConf C16-09-04.3 - v2: References added

We report the detection of a cross-correlation signal between {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope diffuse gamma-ray maps and catalogs of clusters. In our analysis, we considered three different catalogs: WHL12, redMaPPer and PlanckSZ. They all show a positive correlation with different amplitudes, related to the average mass of the objects in each catalog, which also sets the catalog bias. The signal detection is confirmed by the results of a stacking analysis. The cross-correlation signal extends to rather large angular scales, around 1 degree, that correspond, at the typical redshift of the clusters in these catalogs, to a few to tens of Mpc, i.e. the typical scale-length of the large scale structures in the Universe. Most likely this signal is contributed by the cumulative emission from AGNs associated to the filamentary structures that converge toward the high peaks of the matter density field in which galaxy clusters reside. In addition, our analysis reveals the presence of a second component, more compact in size and compatible with a point-like emission from within individual clusters. At present, we cannot distinguish between the two most likely interpretations for such a signal, i.e. whether it is produced by AGNs inside clusters or if it is a diffuse gamma-ray emission from the intra-cluster medium. We argue that this latter, intriguing, hypothesis might be tested by applying this technique to a low redshift large mass cluster sample., Comment: 14 pages, 15 figures; accepted for publication in ApJS

We measure the cross-correlation between Fermi-LAT gamma-ray photons and over 1000 deg$^2$ of weak lensing data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS), the Red Cluster Sequence Lensing Survey (RCSLenS), and the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS). We present the first measurement of tomographic weak lensing cross-correlations and the first application of spectral binning to cross-correlations between gamma rays and weak lensing. The measurements are performed using an angular power spectrum estimator while the covariance is estimated using an analytical prescription. We verify the accuracy of our covariance estimate by comparing it to two internal covariance estimators. Based on the non-detection of a cross-correlation signal, we derive constraints on weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter. We compute exclusion limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section $\langle\sigma_\rm{ann} v \rangle$, decay rate $\Gamma_\rm{dec}$, and particle mass $m_\rm{DM}$. We find that in the absence of a cross-correlation signal, tomography does not significantly improve the constraining power of the analysis. Assuming a strong contribution to the gamma-ray flux due to small-scale clustering of dark matter and accounting for known astrophysical sources of gamma rays, we exclude the thermal relic cross-section for particle masses of $m_\rm{DM}\lesssim 20$ GeV., Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, accepted in MNRAS

We discuss a left-right symmetric extension of the Standard Model in which the three additional right-handed neutrinos play a central role in explaining the baryon asymmetry of the Universe, the dark matter abundance and the ultra energetic signal detected by the IceCube experiment. The energy spectrum and neutrino flux measured by IceCube are ascribed to the decays of the lightest right-handed neutrino $N_1$, thus fixing its mass and lifetime, while the production of $N_1$ in the primordial thermal bath occurs via a freeze-in mechanism driven by the additional $SU(2)_R$ interactions. The constraints imposed by IceCube and the dark matter abundance allow nonetheless the heavier right-handed neutrinos to realize a standard type-I seesaw leptogenesis, with the $B-L$ asymmetry dominantly produced by the next-to-lightest neutrino $N_2$. Further consequences and predictions of the model are that: the $N_1$ production implies a specific power-law relation between the reheating temperature of the Universe and the vacuum expectation value of the $SU(2)_R$ triplet; leptogenesis imposes a lower bound on the reheating temperature of the Universe at $7\times10^9\,\mbox{GeV}$. Additionally, the model requires a vanishing absolute neutrino mass scale $m_1\simeq0$., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures. Constraints from cosmic-ray antiprotons and gamma rays added, with hadrophobic assignment of the matter multiplets to satisfy bounds. References added. Matches version published in JHEP

Statistical properties of photon count maps have recently been proven as a new tool to study the composition of the gamma-ray sky with high precision. We employ the 1-point probability distribution function of 6 years of Fermi-LAT data to measure the source-count distribution dN/dS and the diffuse components of the high-latitude gamma-ray sky as a function of energy. To that aim, we analyze the gamma-ray emission in five adjacent energy bands between 1 GeV and 171 GeV. It is demonstrated that the source-count distribution as a function of flux is compatible with a broken power law up to energies of ~50 GeV. The index below the break is between 1.95 and 2.0. For higher energies, a simple power-law fits the data, with an index of 2.2^{+0.7}_{-0.3} in the energy band between 50 GeV and 171 GeV. Upper limits on further possible breaks as well as the angular power of unresolved sources are derived. We find that point-source populations probed by this method can explain 83^{+7}_{-13}% (81^{+52}_{-19}%) of the extragalactic gamma-ray background between 1.04 GeV and 1.99 GeV (50 GeV and 171 GeV). The method has excellent capabilities for constraining the gamma-ray luminosity function and the spectra of unresolved blazars., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; v2: minor changes, accepted for publication in ApJL

We investigate a phenomenological non-gravitational coupling between dark energy and dark matter, where the interaction in the dark sector is parameterized as an energy transfer either from dark matter to dark energy or the opposite. The models are constrained by a whole host of updated cosmological data: cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropies and polarization, high-redshift supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions and gravitational lensing. Both models are found to be compatible with all cosmological observables, but in the case where dark matter decays into dark energy, the tension with the independent determinations of $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$, already present for standard cosmology, increases: this model in fact predicts lower $H_0$ and higher $\sigma_8$, mostly as a consequence of the higher amount of dark matter at early times, leading to a stronger clustering during the evolution. Instead, when dark matter is fed by dark energy, the reconstructed values of $H_0$ and $\sigma_8$ nicely agree with their local determinations, with a full reconciliation between high- and low-redshift observations. A non-zero coupling between dark energy and dark matter, with an energy flow from the former to the latter, appears therefore to be in better agreement with cosmological data., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted by JCAP

The source-count distribution as a function of their flux, dN/dS, is one of the main quantities characterizing gamma-ray source populations. We employ statistical properties of the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) photon counts map to measure the composition of the extragalactic gamma-ray sky at high latitudes (|b|>30 deg) between 1 GeV and 10 GeV. We present a new method, generalizing the use of standard pixel-count statistics, to decompose the total observed gamma-ray emission into (a) point-source contributions, (b) the Galactic foreground contribution, and (c) a truly diffuse isotropic background contribution. Using the 6-year Fermi-LAT data set (P7REP), we show that the dN/dS distribution in the regime of so far undetected point sources can be consistently described with a power law of index between 1.9 and 2.0. We measure dN/dS down to an integral flux of ~2x10^{-11} cm^{-2}s^{-1}, improving beyond the 3FGL catalog detection limit by about one order of magnitude. The overall dN/dS distribution is consistent with a broken power law, with a break at 2.1^{+1.0}_{-1.3}x10^{-8} cm^{-2}s^{-1}. The power-law index n_1=3.1^{+0.7}_{-0.5} for bright sources above the break hardens to n_2=1.97+-0.03 for fainter sources below the break. A possible second break of the dN/dS distribution is constrained to be at fluxes below 6.4x10^{-11} cm^{-2}s^{-1} at 95% confidence level. The high-latitude gamma-ray sky between 1 GeV and 10 GeV is shown to be composed of ~25% point sources, ~69.3% diffuse Galactic foreground emission, and ~6% isotropic diffuse background., Comment: 28 pages, 20 figures, 6 tables; v2: minor changes and additions, accepted for publication in ApJS

We perform a detailed quantitative analysis of the recent AMS-02 electron and positron data. We investigate the interplay between the emission from primary astrophysical sources, namely Supernova Remnants and Pulsar Wind Nebulae, and the contribution from a dark matter annihilation or decay signal. Our aim is to assess the information that can be derived on dark matter properties when both dark matter and primary astrophysical sources are assumed to jointly contribute to the leptonic observables measured by the AMS-02 experiment. We investigate both the possibility to set robust constraints on the dark matter annihilation/decay rate and the possibility to look for dark matter signals within realistic models that take into account the full complexity of the astrophysical background. Our results show that AMS-02 data enable to probe efficiently vast regions of the dark matter parameter space and, in some cases, to set constraints on the dark matter annihilation/decay rate that are comparable or even stronger than the ones derived from other indirect detection channels., Comment: 27 pages, 15 figures. In v2, several improvements in the statistical analysis have been implemented and some clarifications have been added. Conclusions unchanged. v2 matches version published in JCAP

The precise measurement of cosmic-ray antiparticles serves as important means for identifying the nature of dark matter. Recent years showed that identifying the nature of dark matter with cosmic-ray positrons and higher energy antiprotons is difficult, and has lead to a significantly increased interest in cosmic-ray antideuteron searches. Antideuterons may also be generated in dark matter annihilations or decays, offering a potential breakthrough in unexplored phase space for dark matter. Low-energy antideuterons are an important approach because the flux from dark matter interactions exceeds the background flux by more than two orders of magnitude in the low-energy range for a wide variety of models. This review is based on the "dbar14 - dedicated cosmic-ray antideuteron workshop", which brought together theorists and experimentalists in the field to discuss the current status, perspectives, and challenges for cosmic-ray antideuteron searches and discusses the motivation for antideuteron searches, the theoretical and experimental uncertainties of antideuteron production and propagation in our Galaxy, as well as give an experimental cosmic-ray antideuteron search status update. This report is a condensed summary of the article "Review of the theoretical and experimental status of dark matter identification with cosmic-ray antideuteron" (arXiv:1505.07785)., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, ICRC 2015 proceedings

We compare the measured angular cross-correlation between the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sky and catalogues of extra-galactic objects with the expected signal induced by weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter (DM). We include a detailed description of the contribution of astrophysical gamma-ray emitters such as blazars, misaligned AGN and star forming galaxies, and perform a global fit to the measured cross-correlation. Five catalogues are considered: SDSS-DR6 quasars, 2MASS galaxies, NVSS radio galaxies, SDSS-DR8 Luminous Red Galaxies and SDSS-DR8 main galaxy sample. To model the cross-correlation signal we use the halo occupation distribution formalism to estimate the number of galaxies of a given catalogue in DM halos and their spatial correlation properties. We discuss uncertainties in the predicted cross-correlation signal arising from the DM clustering and WIMP microscopic properties, which set the DM gamma-ray emission. The use of different catalogues probing objects at different redshifts reduces significantly, though not completely, the degeneracy among the different gamma-ray components. We find that the presence of a significant WIMP DM signal is allowed by the data but not significantly preferred by the fit, although this is mainly due to a degeneracy with the misaligned AGN component. With modest substructure boost, the sensitivity of this method excludes thermal annihilation cross sections at 95% C.L. for WIMP masses up to few tens of GeV. Constraining the low-redshift properties of astrophysical populations with future data will further improve the sensitivity to DM., Comment: 24 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables, 4 appendices. V2:updated to match published version in ApJS

Recent years have seen increased theoretical and experimental effort towards the first-ever detection of cosmic-ray antideuterons, in particular as an indirect signature of dark matter annihilation or decay. In contrast to indirect dark matter searches using positrons, antiprotons, or gamma-rays, which suffer from relatively high and uncertain astrophysical backgrounds, searches with antideuterons benefit from very suppressed conventional backgrounds, offering a potential breakthrough in unexplored phase space for dark matter. This article is based on the first dedicated cosmic-ray antideuteron workshop, which was held at UCLA in June 2014. It reviews broad classes of dark matter candidates that result in detectable cosmic-ray antideuteron fluxes, as well as the status and prospects of current experimental searches. The coalescence model of antideuteron production and the influence of antideuteron measurements at particle colliders are discussed. This is followed by a review of the modeling of antideuteron propagation through the magnetic fields, plasma currents, and molecular material of our Galaxy, the solar system, the Earth's geomagnetic field, and the atmosphere. Finally, the three ongoing or planned experiments that are sensitive to cosmic-ray antideuterons, BESS, AMS-02, and GAPS, are detailed. As cosmic-ray antideuteron detection is a rare event search, multiple experiments with orthogonal techniques and backgrounds are essential. Many theoretical and experimental groups have contributed to these studies over the last decade, this review aims to provide the first coherent discussion of the relevant dark matter theories that antideuterons probe, the challenges to predictions and interpretations of antideuteron signals, and the experimental efforts toward cosmic antideuteron detection., Comment: 72 pages, 20 figures

If dark matter (DM) is composed by particles which are non-gravitationally coupled to ordinary matter, their annihilations or decays in cosmic structures can result in detectable radiation. We show that the most powerful technique to detect a particle DM signal outside the Local Group is to study the angular cross-correlation of non-gravitational signals with low-redshift gravitational probes. This method allows to enhance signal-to-noise from the regions of the Universe where the DM-induced emission is preferentially generated. We demonstrate the power of this approach by focusing on GeV-TeV DM and on the recent cross-correlation analysis between the 2MASS galaxy catalogue and the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray maps. We show that this technique is more sensitive than other extragalactic gamma-ray probes, such as the energy spectrum and angular autocorrelation of the extragalactic background, and emission from clusters of galaxies. Intriguingly, we find that the measured cross-correlation can be well fitted by a DM component, with thermal annihilation cross section and mass between 10 and 100 GeV, depending on the small-scale DM properties and gamma-ray production mechanism. This solicits further data collection and dedicated analyses., Comment: 6+3 pages, 6+3 figures; v2: corrected a typo and added a ref. v3: minor changes in the main text, Supplemental Material added, to appear in PRL