Searching for the 3.5 keV Line in the Stacked Suzaku Observations of Galaxy Clusters

TL;DR

This study analyzes stacked Suzaku observations of 47 galaxy clusters to search for the 3.5 keV line, finding only weak or no significant signals, and providing constraints consistent with previous detections but also highlighting some tensions.

Contribution

It offers an independent, detailed analysis of the 3.5 keV line in galaxy clusters using Suzaku data, with a focus on different cluster types and comparison to prior results.

Findings

Only a 2sigma-significant feature at 3.5 keV in the full sample.

No significant residuals in cool-core clusters.

Constraints on neutrino decay are consistent with previous studies.

Abstract

We perform a detailed study of the stacked Suzaku observations of 47 galaxy clusters, spanning a redshift range of 0.01-0.45, to search for the unidentified 3.5 keV line. This sample provides an independent test for the previously detected line. We detect only a 2sigma-significant spectral feature at 3.5 keV in the spectrum of the full sample. When the sample is divided into two subsamples (cool-core and non-cool core clusters), cool-core subsample shows no statistically significant positive residuals at the line energy. A very weak (2sigma-confidence) spectral feature at 3.5 keV is permitted by the data from the non-cool core clusters sample. The upper limit on a neutrino decay mixing angle from the full Suzaku sample is consistent with the previous detections in the stacked XMM-Newton sample of galaxy clusters (which had a higher statistical sensitivity to faint lines), M31, and Galactic Center at a 90% confidence level. However, the constraint from the present sample, which does not include the Perseus cluster, is in tension with previously reported line flux observed in the core of the Perseus cluster with XMM-Newton and Suzaku.