Dark Matter Annihilation around Intermediate Mass Black Holes: an update

TL;DR

This paper reviews the formation and survival of dark matter mini-spikes around intermediate mass black holes, assessing their potential for indirect detection and connecting recent cosmic-ray measurements to these scenarios.

Contribution

It provides new estimates for mini-spike abundances and explores their detectability, considering astrophysical uncertainties and recent cosmic-ray data.

Findings

Mini-spike abundances are sensitive to cosmological parameters.

Mini-spikes could be promising targets for indirect dark matter detection.

Recent cosmic-ray data may be explained by dark matter around IMBHs.

Abstract

The formation and evolution of Black Holes inevitably affects the distribution of dark and baryonic matter in the neighborhood of the Black Hole. These effects may be particularly relevant around Supermassive and Intermediate Mass Black Holes (IMBHs), the formation of which can lead to large Dark Matter overdensities, called {\em spikes} and {\em mini-spikes} respectively. Despite being larger and more dense, spikes evolve at the very centers of galactic halos, in regions where numerous dynamical effects tend to destroy them. Mini-spikes may be more likely to survive, and they have been proposed as worthwhile targets for indirect Dark Matter searches. We review here the formation scenarios and the prospects for detection of mini-spikes, and we present new estimates for the abundances of mini-spikes to illustrate the sensitivity of such predictions to cosmological parameters and uncertainties regarding the astrophysics of Black Hole formation at high redshift. We also connect the IMBHs scenario to the recent measurements of cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra by the PAMELA, ATIC, H.E.S.S., and Fermi collaborations.