# Theoretical predictions for dark matter detection in dwarf irregular galaxies with gamma rays

## TL;DR

This paper explores dwarf irregular galaxies as new targets for dark matter detection via gamma rays, showing their potential despite current limitations and comparing them to dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

## Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate dark matter content in dwarf irregular galaxies and assesses their viability as gamma-ray targets for dark matter searches.

## Key findings

- J-factors of dIrrs are comparable to dSphs.
- Astrophysical gamma-ray background in dIrrs is negligible.
- Constraints on dark matter properties are derived from Fermi-LAT data.

## Abstract

We investigate dwarf irregular(dIrr) galaxies as a new category of targets for indirect Dark Matter(DM) searches with gamma-rays. In the framework of point-like analysis, dwarf spheroidal(dSph) galaxies are usually considered as one of the best category of targets for indirect DM searches. Nonetheless, as a result of their uncertain kinematics, the DM content and astrophysical J-factors of dSphs are usually affected by significant errors. In this paper, we study a sample of 36 dIrrs as prospective targets of interest. In the framework of the universal rotation curve, the kinematics of dIrr galaxies provides a good estimation of their DM halo density distribution and, consequently, of their astrophysical J-factors. We calculate the J-factors for these 36 dIrr galaxies. We find a range of values comparable with the J-factors of dSph galaxies. However, differently from dSphs an extra astrophysical gamma-ray background component is expected in dIrrs, that is due to their star-formation activity. In this paper, we show via a theoretical approach that for galaxies in our sample the extra astrophysical background component is negligible. Therefore, we conclude that dIrr galaxies can be potentially considered as additional point-like targets for DM searches with gamma-rays. As a first application of this study, we show the sensitivity limits of the Fermi-LAT telescope to these objects and we calculate constraints on the DM particle mass and annihilation cross-section. We conclude that the results of the individual study of several dIrr galaxies are not yet competitive with respect to the analysis of one of the most promising dSph galaxies, ie SEGUE1. However, taking into account SEGUE1's symmetry-related uncertainties in the J-factor calculation might alter this conclusion. Additionally, we calculate constraints for the combined analysis of the 7 most promising dIrr galaxies of our sample.