A comment on the emission from the Galactic Center as seen by the Fermi telescope

TL;DR

This paper reanalyzes Fermi telescope data of the Galactic Center and finds that the gamma-ray emission excess previously attributed to dark matter annihilation is consistent with standard diffuse emission and known sources.

Contribution

It challenges prior claims of dark matter signals by showing the emission can be explained by existing models and source spectra.

Findings

The gamma-ray excess is consistent with standard diffuse emission.

Differences in source spectrum assumptions explain previous discrepancies.

No evidence found for dark matter annihilation in the data.

Abstract

In the recent paper of Hooper & Goodenough (1010.2752) it was reported that gamma-ray emission from the Galactic Center region contains an excess compared to the contributions from the large-scale diffuse emission and known point sources. This excess was argued to be consistent with a signal from annihilation of Dark Matter with a power law density profile. We reanalyze the Fermi data and find instead that it is consistent with the "standard model" of diffuse emission and of known point sources. The main reason for the discrepancy with the interpretation of 1010.2752 is different (as compared to the previous works) spectrum of the point source at the Galactic Center assumed in 1010.2752. We discuss possible reasons for such an interpretation.