Inverse Compton gamma-rays from Galactic dark matter annihilation: Anisotropy signatures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dark matter annihilation produces gamma-ray anisotropies via inverse Compton scattering, highlighting the impact of substructure distribution and electron diffusion on observable signatures.

Contribution

Develops a numerical tool to compute gamma-ray anisotropies from dark matter annihilation, accounting for subhalos and electron diffusion effects.

Findings

Angular power spectrum is exponentially suppressed below a certain scale.

Total gamma-ray flux is dominated by subhalos, not the smooth halo.

Anisotropy signatures depend strongly on subhalo spatial distribution.

Abstract

High energy electrons and positrons from annihilating dark matter can imprint unique angular anisotropies on the diffuse gamma-ray flux by inverse Compton scattering off the interstellar radiation field. We develop a numerical tool to compute gamma-ray emission from such electrons and positrons produced in the smooth host halo and in substructure halos with masses down to 10^(-6)M_sun. We show that the angular power spectrum from inverse Compton scattering is exponentially suppressed below an angular scale determined by the diffusion length of electrons and positrons. We also find that the total flux and the shape of the angular power spectrum depends sensitively on the spatial distribution of subhalos in the Milky Way. Finally, the contribution from the smooth host halo component to the gamma-ray mean intensity is negligibly small compared to subhalos.