A novel approach in the WIMP quest: Cross-Correlation of Gamma-Ray Anisotropies and Cosmic Shear

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new method to detect dark matter by analyzing the cross-correlation between gamma-ray anisotropies and cosmic shear, which could reveal the nature of gamma-ray sources and dark matter properties.

Contribution

It introduces the computation of the cross-correlation angular power spectrum between cosmic shear and gamma-rays from WIMP dark matter and astrophysical sources, offering a novel observational probe.

Findings

Cross-correlation signal depends on gamma-ray source type.

Potential detectability with Fermi-LAT and future galaxy surveys.

Could distinguish dark matter contribution to gamma-ray background.

Abstract

Both cosmic shear and cosmological gamma-ray emission stem from the presence of Dark Matter (DM) in the Universe: DM structures are responsible for the bending of light in the weak lensing regime and those same objects can emit gamma-rays, either because they host astrophysical sources (active galactic nuclei or star-forming galaxies) or directly by DM annihilations (or decays, depending on the properties of the DM particle). Such gamma-rays should therefore exhibit strong correlation with the cosmic shear signal. In this Letter, we compute the cross-correlation angular power spectrum of cosmic shear and gamma-rays produced by the annihilation/decay of Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) DM, as well as from astrophysical sources. We show that this observable provides novel information on the composition of the Extra-galactic Gamma-ray Background (EGB), since the amplitude and shape of the cross-correlation signal strongly depends on which class of source is responsible for the gamma-ray emission. If the DM contribution to the EGB is significant (at least in a definite energy range), although compatible with current observational bounds, its strong correlation with the cosmic shear makes such signal potentially detectable by combining Fermi-LAT data with forthcoming galaxy surveys, like Dark Energy Survey and Euclid. At the same time, the same signal would demonstrate that the weak lensing observables are indeed due to particle DM matter and not to possible modifications of General Relativity.