Multiwavelength analysis of low surface brightness galaxies to study possible dark matter signature

TL;DR

This study investigates low surface brightness galaxies as potential dark matter detection sites by analyzing nine years of Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data and radio observations, setting constraints on dark matter annihilation signals.

Contribution

It provides the first multiwavelength analysis of LSB galaxies for dark matter signatures, combining gamma-ray and radio data to set constraints on WIMP annihilation.

Findings

No excess gamma-ray emission detected from LSB galaxies.

Constraints on dark matter annihilation cross-section are weaker than those from dwarf spheroidals.

Future observatories like CTA and SKA may improve detection prospects.

Abstract

Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxies have very diffuse, low surface density stellar disks which appear faint in optical images. They are very rich in neutral hydrogen (HI) gas, which extends well beyond the stellar disks. Their extended HI rotation curves and stellar disks indicate that they have very massive dark matter (DM) halos compared to normal bright galaxies. Hence, LSB galaxies may represent valuable laboratories for the indirect detection of DM. In this paper, we search for WIMP annihilation signatures in four LSB galaxies and present an analysis of nearly nine years of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Above 500 MeV, no excess emission was detected from the LSB galaxies. We obtain constraints on the DM cross-section for different annihilation channels, for both individual and stacked targets. In addition to this, we use radio data from the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope in order to derive DM constraints, following a multiwavelength approach. The constraints obtained from the four considered LSB galaxies are nearly 3 orders of magnitude weaker than the predicted limits for the thermal relic abundances and the combined limits achieved from Fermi-LAT observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Finally, we discuss the possibility of detecting emission from LSB galaxies using the upcoming ground-based $\gamma$-ray and radio observatories, namely the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).