WMAP haze: Directly observing dark matter?
- 1. University of British Columbia, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
- 2. Nuclear Theory Group, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1560 (United States)
Description
In this paper, we show that dark matter in the form of dense matter/antimatter nuggets could provide a natural and unified explanation for several distinct bands of diffuse radiation from the core of the Galaxy spanning over 13 orders of magnitude in frequency. We fix all of the phenomenological properties of this model by matching to x-ray observations in the keV band, and then calculate the unambiguously predicted thermal emission in the microwave band, at frequencies smaller by 11 orders of magnitude. Remarkably, the intensity and spectrum of the emitted thermal radiation are consistent with - and could entirely explain - the so-called 'WMAP haze': a diffuse microwave excess observed from the core of our Galaxy by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). This provides another strong constraint of our proposal, and a remarkable nontrivial validation. If correct, our proposal identifies the nature of the dark matter, explains baryogenesis, and provides a means to directly probe the matter distribution in our Galaxy by analyzing several different types of diffuse emissions.
Additional details
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.083505;
- arXiv
- arXiv:0802.3830v2;
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields
- Journal Volume
- 78
- Journal Issue
- 8
- Journal Page Range
- p. 083505-083505.15
- ISSN
- 0556-2821
- CODEN
- PRVDAQ
INIS
- Country of Publication
- United States
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 41004982
- Subject category
- S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
- Descriptors DEI
- ANISOTROPY; ANTIMATTER; DIFFUSION; DISTRIBUTION; EMISSION; GALAXIES; KEV RANGE; MICROWAVE RADIATION; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; SPECTRA; THERMAL RADIATION; X RADIATION
- Descriptors DEC
- ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION; ENERGY RANGE; IONIZING RADIATIONS; MATTER; RADIATIONS
Optional Information
- Notes
- (c) 2008 The American Physical Society