• Corpus ID: 252519363

Prompt cusps and the dark matter annihilation signal

@inproceedings{Delos2022PromptCA,
  title={Prompt cusps and the dark matter annihilation signal},
  author={M. Sten Delos and S. M. White},
  year={2022}
}

• M. Sten Delos, S. White
• Published 22 September 2022
• Physics

As gravitational collapse creates the first cosmic objects, a dark matter cusp forms immediately at every initial density maximum. Such prompt cusps have a density profile ρ ∝ r − 1 . 5 extending up to a limiting density dependent on the nature of dark matter. Numerical simulations and theoretical arguments suggest that the bulk of these cusps survive until the present day. Here we show that if dark matter is a thermally produced weakly interacting massive particle, many thousands of prompt cusps with individual masses similar to that of the earth should be present in every solar mass of dark matter. This radically alters predictions for the amount and spatial distribution of dark matter annihilation radiation, substantially tightening observational constraints on the relevant cross sections. In particular, the cross section required to explain the Galactic Centre γ -ray excess predicts emission from prompt cusps elsewhere at levels in tension with the observed diffuse γ -ray background.