Antiproton signatures from astrophysical and dark matter sources at the galactic center

TL;DR

This paper investigates antiproton signals from the galactic center, analyzing astrophysical and dark matter sources, and constrains their contributions based on observed data and theoretical models.

Contribution

It provides new constraints on antiproton fluxes from the galactic center, considering various spectral models and diffusion uncertainties, to better understand potential dark matter signals.

Findings

Secondary astrophysical antiprotons saturate observed data.

Additional sources would cause inconsistent excesses.

Constraints vary with diffusion models and spectral features.

Abstract

The center of our Galaxy is a complex region characterized by extreme phenomena. The presence of the supermassive Sagittarius A* black hole, a high Dark Matter density and an even higher baryonic density are able to produce very energetic processes. Indeed, high energetic gamma rays have been observed by different telescopes, although its origin is not clear. In this work, we constrain the possible antiproton flux component associated to this signal. The expected secondary astrophysical antiproton background already saturates the observed data. It implies that any other important astrophysical source leads to an inconsistent excess, since the theoretical uncertainties corresponding to the mentioned background are small. The constraints depend on the diffusion model and the spectral features of the source. In particular, we consider antiproton spectra described by a power-law, a monochromatic signal and a Standard Model particle-antiparticle channel production.