Search for Ultraheavy Dark Matter from Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with VERITAS

Tak, Donggeun; Hoang, J.; Santander, M.; Quinn, J.; Baumgart, M.; Kieda, D.; Holder, J.; Kertzman, M.; Kaaret, P.; Kleiner, T. K.; Vassiliev, V. V.; Lang, M. J.; Kherlakian, M.; Sembroski, G. H.; Finley, J. P.; Lundy, M.; Saha, L.; Ragan, K.; Jin, W.; Fortson, L.; Sadeh, I.; Hanlon, W. F.; Furniss, A.; Archer, A.; Humensky, T. B.; Reynolds, P. T.; Hervet, O.; Williams, D. A.; Roache, E.; Falcone, A.; Benbow, W.; O'Brien, S.; Maier, G.; Acharyya, A.; McGrath, C. E.; Batista, P.; Tucci, J. V.; VERITAS Collaboration; Ryan, J. L.; Gallagher, G.; Pfrang, K.; Feng, Q.; Moriarty, P.; Pohl, Martin; Krennrich, F.; Splettstoesser, M.; Foote, G. M.; Rodd, N. L.; Buckley, J. H.; Bangale, P.; Bartkoske, J. T.; Shang, R.; Ong, R. A.; Pueschel, E.; Korzoun, N.

Preprint

PUBDB-2023-00876

Search for Ultraheavy Dark Matter from Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with VERITAS

Tak, D. (Corresponding author)DESY* ; Pueschel, E. (Corresponding author)DESY* ; Baumgart, M. ; Rodd, N. L. ; Acharyya, A. ; Archer, A. ; Bangale, P. ; Bartkoske, J. T. ; Batista, P. ; Benbow, W. ; Buckley, J. H. ; Falcone, A. ; Feng, Q. ; Finley, J. P. ; Foote, G. M. ; Fortson, L. ; Furniss, A. ; Gallagher, G. ; Hanlon, W. F. ; Hervet, O. ; Hoang, J. ; Holder, J. ; Humensky, T. B. ; Jin, W. ; Kaaret, P. ; Kertzman, M. ; Kherlakian, M.DESY* ; Kieda, D. ; Kleiner, T. K.DESY* ; Korzoun, N. ; Krennrich, F. ; Lang, M. J. ; Lundy, M. ; Maier, G.DESY* ; McGrath, C. E. ; Moriarty, P. ; O'Brien, S. ; Ong, R. A. ; Pfrang, K.DESY* ; Pohl, M.DESY* ; Quinn, J. ; Ragan, K. ; Reynolds, P. T. ; Roache, E. ; Ryan, J. L. ; Sadeh, I.DESY* ; Saha, L. ; Santander, M. ; Sembroski, G. H. ; Shang, R. ; Splettstoesser, M. ; Tucci, J. V. ; Vassiliev, V. V. ; Williams, D. A. ; VERITAS Collaboration (Collaboration Author)

2023

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Report No.: arXiv:2302.08784

Abstract: Dark matter is a key piece of the current cosmological scenario, with weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) a leading dark matter candidate. WIMPs have not been detected in their conventional parameter space (100 GeV $\lesssim M_{\chi} \lesssim$ 100 TeV), a mass range accessible with current Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes. As ultraheavy dark matter (UHDM; $M_{\chi} \gtrsim$ 100 TeV) has been suggested as an under-explored alternative to the WIMP paradigm, we search for an indirect dark matter annihilation signal in a higher mass range (up to 30 PeV) with the VERITAS gamma-ray observatory. With 216 hours of observations of four dwarf spheroidal galaxies, we perform an unbinned likelihood analysis. We find no evidence of a $\gamma$-ray signal from UHDM annihilation above the background fluctuation for any individual dwarf galaxy nor for a joint-fit analysis, and consequently constrain the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section of UHDM for dark matter particle masses between 1 TeV and 30 PeV. We additionally set constraints on the allowed radius of a composite UHDM particle.

Keyword(s): dark matter, annihilation ; background, fluctuation ; cross section, annihilation ; WIMP ; galaxy ; TeV ; VERITAS ; observatory ; GeV ; composite ; Cherenkov counter ; imaging ; gamma ray