Dark matter substructure cannot explain properties of the Fermi Galactic Centre excess

TL;DR

The paper argues that dark matter substructure cannot explain the gamma-ray excess at the Galactic Centre, as the emission's point-like nature contradicts dark matter models and unresolved sources are more likely responsible.

Contribution

It provides a critical analysis showing that dark matter substructure models are incompatible with the observed properties of the gamma-ray excess.

Findings

Dark matter substructure models cannot explain the point-like gamma-ray excess.

Unresolved point sources are the more plausible explanation for the excess.

Dark matter interpretation is ruled out based on emission morphology and modeling constraints.

Abstract

An excess of gamma rays has been identified at the centre of the Milky Way, and annihilation of dark matter has been posited as a potential source. This hypothesis faces significant challenges: difficulty characterizing astrophysical backgrounds, the need for a non-trivial adiabatic contraction of the inner part of the Milky Way's dark matter halo, and recent observations of photon clustering, which suggest that the majority of the excess is due to unresolved point sources. Here we point out that the apparent point-like nature of the emission rules out the dark matter interpretation of the excess entirely. Attempting to model the emission with dark matter point sources either worsens the problem with the inner slope, requires an unrealistically large minihalo fraction toward the Galactic Centre, or overproduces the observed emission at higher latitudes.