Confronting Galactic and Extragalactic $\gamma$-ray observed by Fermi-LAT with Annihilating Dark Matter in Inert Higgs Doublet Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether a low-mass inert Higgs doublet model of dark matter can explain galactic and extragalactic gamma-ray observations from Fermi-LAT, fitting data and constraints to identify a viable dark matter candidate around 63.5 GeV.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the inert Higgs doublet model can account for observed gamma-ray excesses and constraints, providing a viable dark matter explanation consistent with Fermi-LAT data.

Findings

Best-fit dark matter mass around 63.5 GeV.

Model can explain galactic gamma-ray excess.

Model consistent with extragalactic gamma-ray background constraints.

Abstract

In this thorough study we focus on the indirect detection of Dark Matter (DM) through the confrontation of unexplained galactic and extragalactic $\gamma$-ray signatures for a low mass DM model. For this, we consider a simple Higgs-portal DM model, namely, the inert Higgs doublet model (IHDM) where the Standard Model is extended with an additional complex SU(2)$_L$ doublet scalar. The stability of the DM candidate in this model, i.e., the lightest neutral scalar component of the extra doublet, is ensured by imposing discrete $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry. The reduced-$\chi^2$ analysis with the theoretical, experimental and observational constraints suggests the best-fit value of DM mass in this model to be $\sim$ 63.5 GeV. We analyse the anomalous GeV $\gamma$-ray excess from Galactic Centre in light of the best-fit IHDM parameters. We further check the consistency of the best-fit IHDM parameters with the Fermi-LAT obtained limits on photon flux for 18 Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) known to be mostly dominated by DM. Also since the $\gamma$-ray signal from DM annihilation is assumed to be embedded within the extragalactic $\gamma$-ray background (EGB), the theoretical calculations of photon flux for the best-fit parameter point in the IHDM framework are compared with the Fermi-LAT results for diffuse and isotropic EGB for different extragalactic and astrophysical background parametrisations. We show that the low mass DM in IHDM framework can satisfactorily confront all the observed continuum $\gamma$-ray fluxes originated from galactic as well as extragalactic sources. The extensive analysis performed in this work is valid for any Higgs-portal model with DM mass in the ballpark of that considered in this work.