Constraining Dark Matter lifetime with a deep gamma-ray survey of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster with MAGIC

TL;DR

This study used nearly 400 hours of MAGIC telescope observations of the Perseus galaxy cluster to search for gamma-ray signals from decaying dark matter, setting new constraints on dark matter particle lifetime.

Contribution

It provides the deepest gamma-ray survey of a galaxy cluster for dark matter decay signals and establishes the strongest ground-based limits on dark matter decay lifetime to date.

Findings

No evidence of dark matter decay signals was found.

Dark matter particles have a decay lifetime longer than approximately 10^26 seconds.

Results improve upon previous limits set by MAGIC.

Abstract

Clusters of galaxies are the largest known gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, with masses around $10^{15}\ M_\odot$, most of it in the form of dark matter. The ground-based Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescope MAGIC made a deep survey of the Perseus cluster of galaxies using almost 400 h of data recorded between 2009 and 2017. This is the deepest observational campaign so far on a cluster of galaxies in the very high energy range. We search for gamma-ray signals from dark matter particles in the mass range between 200 GeV and 200 TeV decaying into standard model pairs. We apply an analysis optimized for the spectral and morphological features expected from dark matter decays and find no evidence of decaying dark matter. From this, we conclude that dark matter particles have a decay lifetime longer than $\sim10^{26}$~s in all considered channels. Our results improve previous lower limits found by MAGIC and represent the strongest limits on decaying dark matter particles from ground-based gamma-ray instruments.