* Astronomy

Title: Dark matter powered stars: Constraints from the extragalactic background light
Authors: A. Maurer, M. Raue, T. Kneiske, D. Elsässer, P. H. Hauschildt, D. Horns

The existence of predominantly cold non-baryonic dark matter is unambiguously demonstrated by several observations (e.g., structure formation, big bang nucleosynthesis, gravitational lensing, and rotational curves of spiral galaxies). A candidate well motivated by particle physics is a weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP). Self-annihilating WIMPs would affect the stellar evolution especially in the early universe. Stars powered by self-annihilating WIMP dark matter should possess different properties compared with standard stars. While a direct detection of such dark matter powered stars seems very challenging, their cumulative emission might leave an imprint in the diffuse metagalactic radiation fields, in particular in the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. In this work the possible contributions of dark matter powered stars (dark stars; DSs) to the extragalactic background light (EBL) are calculated. It is shown that existing data and limits of the EBL intensity can already be used to rule out some DS parameter sets.

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Title: Constraining dark matter models from a combined analysis of Milky Way satellites with the Fermi-LAT
Authors: The Fermi-LAT Collaboration: M. Ackermann, M. Ajello, A. Albert, W. B. Atwood, L. Baldini, J. Ballet, G. Barbiellini, D. Bastieri, K. Bechtol, R. Bellazzini, B. Berenji, R. D. Blandford, E. D. Bloom, E. Bonamente, A. W. Borgland, J. Bregeon, M. Brigida, P. Bruel, R. Buehler, T. H. Burnett, S. Buson, G. A. Caliandro, R. A. Cameron, B. Canadas, P. A. Caraveo, J. M. Casandjian, C. Cecchi, E. Charles, A. Chekhtman, J. Chiang, S. Ciprini, R. Claus, J. Cohen-Tanugi, J. Conrad, S. Cutini, A. de Angelis, F. de Palma, C. D. Dermer, S. W. Digel, E. do Couto e Silva, P. S. Drell, A. Drlica-Wagner, L. Falletti, C. Favuzzi, S. J. Fegan, E. C. Ferrara, Y. Fukazawa, S. Funk, P. Fusco, F. Gargano, D. Gasparrini, N. Gehrels, S. Germani, N. Giglietto, F. Giordano, M. Giroletti, T. Glanzman, G. Godfrey, I. A. Grenier, et al. (93 additional authors not shown) (Version v2)


Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are among the most promising targets for dark matter searches in gamma rays because of their large dynamical mass to light ratio and small expected background from astrophysical sources. We present a search for dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles where we apply a joint likelihood analysis to 10 satellite galaxies with 24 months of data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. No dark matter signal is detected. Taking into account the uncertainty in the dark matter distribution in the satellites, robust upper limits are placed on dark matter models. The 95% confidence level upper limits on the annihilation cross section range from about 1e-26 cm^3 s^-1 at 5 GeV to about 5e-23 cm^3 s^-1 at 1 TeV, depending on the dark matter annihilation final state. For the first time, using gamma rays, we are able to rule out models with the most generic cross section (~3e-26 cm^3 s^-1 for a purely s-wave cross section), without assuming additional astrophysical or particle physics boost factors.

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Dark matter particles may be heavyweights after all

Dark matter is slowly running out of places to hide. Two new looks at the gamma-ray sky suggest that if the mysterious matter is a particle, it is heavier than 40 gigaelectronvolts, about 44 times the mass of a proton.
That contradicts hints from three experiments on Earth that pointed to a lightweight dark matter particle weighing just a quarter as much, although some researchers say such featherweights are still in the running.
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Physicists set strongest limit on mass of dark matter
 
Brown University physicists have set the strongest limit for the mass of dark matter, the mysterious particles believed to make up nearly a quarter of the universe. The researchers report in Physical Review Letters that dark matter must have a mass greater than 40 giga-electron volts. The distinction is important because it casts doubt on recent results from underground experiments that have reported detecting dark matter.
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