A Comprehensive Search for Dark Matter Annihilation in Dwarf Galaxies
Alex Geringer-Sameth, Savvas M. Koushiappas, and Matthew G. Walker

TL;DR
This paper introduces a new statistical framework for detecting dark matter annihilation signals in dwarf galaxies, combining all available data and physical models to set robust limits on dark matter properties.
Contribution
The authors develop a comprehensive formalism that maximizes search power and accurately constructs probability distributions without large sample approximations, improving dark matter detection methods.
Findings
No significant dark matter annihilation signal detected.
Constraints on dark matter cross section are below the weak scale for masses below ~30 GeV.
Provides the strongest limits to date for dark matter masses under 1 TeV.
Abstract
We present a new formalism designed to discover dark matter annihilation occurring in the Milky Way's dwarf galaxies. The statistical framework extracts all available information in the data by simultaneously combining observations of all the dwarf galaxies and incorporating the impact of particle physics properties, the distribution of dark matter in the dwarfs, and the detector response. The method performs maximally powerful frequentist searches and produces confidence limits on particle physics parameters. Probability distributions of test statistics under various hypotheses are constructed exactly, without relying on large sample approximations. The derived limits have proper coverage by construction and claims of detection are not biased by imperfect background modeling. We implement this formalism using data from the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to search for an annihilation…
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