Swift observation of Segue 1: constraints on sterile neutrino parameters in the darkest galaxy
| dc.contributor.author | Mirabal, N. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-09-03T17:33:52Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-09-03T17:33:52Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2010-11-01 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Some extensions of standard particle physics postulate that dark matter may be partially composed of weakly interacting sterile neutrino particles that have so far eluded detection. We use a short (∼5 ks) archival X-ray observation of Segue 1 obtained with the X-ray Telescope (XRT) onboard the Swift satellite to exclude the presence of sterile neutrinos in the 1.6–14 keV mass range down to a flux limit of 6 × 10⁻¹² erg cm⁻² s⁻¹ within 67 pc of its centre. With an estimated mass-to-light ratio of ∼3400 M⊙/L⊙, Segue 1 is the darkest ultrafaint dwarf galaxy currently measured. Spectral analysis of the Swift XRT data fails to find any non-instrumental spectral feature possibly connected with the radiative decay of a dark matter particle. Accordingly, we establish upper bounds on the sterile neutrino parameter space based on the non-detection of emission lines in the spectrum. The present work provides the most sensitive X-ray search for sterile neutrinos in a region with the highest dark matter density yet measured. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | N.M. gratefully acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through a Ram´on y Cajal fellowship. Support from the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Programme under grant MULTIDARK CSD2009-00064 is also acknowledged. We thank the referee for comments. Finally, we acknowledge the use of public data from the Swift data archive. | en_US |
| dc.description.uri | https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/409/1/L128/1003391 | en_US |
| dc.format.extent | 5 pages | en_US |
| dc.genre | journal articles preprints | en_US |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.13016/m2c9hk-axla | |
| dc.identifier.citation | N. Mirabal, Swift observation of Segue 1: constraints on sterile neutrino parameters in the darkest galaxy, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, Volume 409, Issue 1, November 2010, Pages L128–L131, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00963.x | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00963.x | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11603/19584 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Oxford University Press | en_US |
| dc.relation.isAvailableAt | The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Physics Department Collection | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) | |
| dc.relation.ispartof | UMBC Center for Space Sciences and Technology (CSST) / Center for Research and Exploration in Space Sciences & Technology II (CRSST II) | |
| dc.rights | This item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author. | |
| dc.rights | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. | |
| dc.title | Swift observation of Segue 1: constraints on sterile neutrino parameters in the darkest galaxy | en_US |
| dc.type | Text | en_US |