Dark Matter Spikes and Annihilation Radiation from the Galactic Center

2002/01/31 by David Merritt, Miloš Milosavljević, Milos Milosavljevic +3 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.88.191301

published as Phys.Rev.Lett.88:191301,2002 · 4 pages, 3 postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty

openalex publication_date 2002/04/30 · arxiv created 2002/05/09 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The annihilation rate of weakly interacting cold dark matter particles at the galactic center could be greatly enhanced by the growth of a density spike around the central supermassive black hole (SBH). Here we discuss the effects of hierarchical mergers on the central spike. Mergers between halos containing SBHs lead to the formation of SBH binaries which transfer energy to the dark matter particles, lowering their density. The predicted flux of annihilation photons from the galactic center is several orders of magnitude smaller than in models that ignore the effects of SBHs and mergers. Measurement of the annihilation radiation could in principle be used to constrain the merger history of the galaxy.

Citations

• Searching for TeV dark matter by atmospheric Čerenkov techniques
• Neutralino dark matter in focus point supersymmetry
• Evaluating approximations for halo merging histories

Cited by

• Analytical approach to subhalo population in dark matter haloes
• The Galactic center as a dark matter gamma-ray source
• Stellar Dynamics at the Galactic Center with an Extremely Large Telescope
• DARK MATTER DYNAMICS AND INDIRECT DETECTION