Can the dark matter annihilation signal be significantly boosted by substructures?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how small dark matter structures, or clumps, could enhance signals of dark matter annihilation, considering different density profiles and survival scenarios within the Milky Way and cosmic structures.

Contribution

It analyzes the survival and impact of cored dark matter clumps on annihilation signals, contrasting with standard NFW profiles and considering their destruction near galactic centers.

Findings

Cored clumps are less stable than NFW ones and are destroyed within 20 kpc of the Milky Way center.

Clumps are likely to survive beyond 50 kpc from the galactic center, boosting annihilation signals.

Approximately 70% of primordial clumps are expected to still exist today.

Abstract

A very general cosmological consideration suggests that, along with galactic dark matter halos, much smaller dark matter structures may exist. These structures are usually called 'clumps', and their mass extends to $10^{-6} M_\odot$ or even lower. The clumps should give the main contribution into the signal of dark matter annihilation, provided that they have survived until the present time. Recent observations favor a cored profile for low-mass astrophysical halos. We consider cored clumps and show that they are significantly less firm than the standard NFW ones. In contrast to the standard scenario, the cored clumps should have been completely destroyed inside $\sim 20$~{kpc} from the Milky Way center. The dwarf spheroidals should not contain any dark matter clumps. On the other hand, even under the most pessimistic assumption about the clump structure, the clumps should have survived in the Milky Way at a distance exceeding $50$~{kpc} from the center, as well as in low-density cosmic structures. There they significantly boost the dark matter annihilation. We show that at least $~70\%$ of the clumps endured the primordial structure formation should still exist untouched in the present-day Universe.