Probing the nature of dark matter with Cosmic X-rays: Constraints from "Dark blobs" and grating spectra of galaxy clusters

Riemer-Sorensen, Signe; Pedersen, Kristian; Hansen, Steen H.; Dahle, Haakon

Probing the nature of dark matter with Cosmic X-rays: Constraints from "Dark blobs" and grating spectra of galaxy clusters

Authors

Riemer-Sorensen, Signe

Pedersen, Kristian

Hansen, Steen H.

Dahle, Haakon

Description

Gravitational lensing observations of galaxy clusters have identified dark matter ``blobs'' with remarkably low baryonic content. We use such a system to probe the particle nature of dark matter with X-ray observations. We also study high resolution X-ray grating spectra of a cluster of galaxies. From these grating spectra we improve the conservative constraints on a particular dark matter candidate, the sterile neutrino, by more than one order of magnitude. Based on these conservative constraints obtained from Cosmic X-ray observations alone, the low mass (m_s < 10keV) and low mixing angle (sin^2(2θ) 10^{-6}) sterile neutrino is still a viable dark matter candidate.
4 pages, 4 figures