The angular power spectrum of the diffuse gamma-ray background as a probe of Galactic dark matter substructure

TL;DR

This paper proposes that small-scale anisotropies in the diffuse gamma-ray background can be used to identify signals from Galactic dark matter substructure, differentiating it from extragalactic sources.

Contribution

It introduces a method to detect Galactic dark matter via characteristic anisotropies in gamma-ray emission, enhancing detection prospects over isotropic signals.

Findings

Dark matter substructure causes distinctive small-scale anisotropies.

Energy-dependent angular power spectrum can distinguish Galactic dark matter.

Predictions for anisotropy signatures from various gamma-ray sources.

Abstract

Dark matter annihilation in Galactic substructure produces diffuse gamma-ray emission of remarkably constant intensity across the sky, and in general this signal dominates over the smooth halo signal at angles greater than a few tens of degrees from the Galactic Center. The large-scale isotropy of the emission from substructure suggests that it may be difficult to extract this Galactic dark matter signal from the extragalactic gamma-ray background. I show that dark matter substructure induces characteristic small-scale anisotropies in the diffuse emission which may provide a robust means of distinguishing this component. I discuss predictions for the angular power spectrum of the diffuse emission from various extragalactic source classes as well as from Galactic dark matter, and show that the energy dependence of the angular power spectrum of the total measured emission could be used to confidently identify a gamma-ray signal from Galactic dark matter.