Limits from the grave: resurrecting Hitomi for decaying dark matter and forecasting leading sensitivity for XRISM. (arXiv:2305.17160v1 [astro-ph.CO])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dessert_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Christopher Dessert</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ning_O/0/1/0/all/0/1">Orion Ning</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Rodd_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Nicholas L. Rodd</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Safdi_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Benjamin R. Safdi</a>
The Hitomi X-ray satellite mission carried unique high-resolution
spectrometers that were set to revolutionize the search for sterile neutrino
dark matter (DM) by looking for narrow X-ray lines arising from DM decays.
Unfortunately, the satellite was lost shortly after launch, and to-date the
only analysis using Hitomi for DM decay used data taken towards the Perseus
cluster. In this work we present a significantly more sensitive search from an
analysis of archival Hitomi data towards blank sky locations, searching for DM
decaying in our own Milky Way. The soon-to-be-launched XRISM satellite will
have nearly identical soft-X-ray spectral capabilities to Hitomi; we project
the full-mission sensitivity of XRISM for analyses of their future blank-sky
data, and we find that XRISM will have the leading sensitivity to decaying DM
for masses between roughly 1 to 20 keV, with important implications for sterile
neutrino and heavy axion-like particle DM scenarios.
The Hitomi X-ray satellite mission carried unique high-resolution
spectrometers that were set to revolutionize the search for sterile neutrino
dark matter (DM) by looking for narrow X-ray lines arising from DM decays.
Unfortunately, the satellite was lost shortly after launch, and to-date the
only analysis using Hitomi for DM decay used data taken towards the Perseus
cluster. In this work we present a significantly more sensitive search from an
analysis of archival Hitomi data towards blank sky locations, searching for DM
decaying in our own Milky Way. The soon-to-be-launched XRISM satellite will
have nearly identical soft-X-ray spectral capabilities to Hitomi; we project
the full-mission sensitivity of XRISM for analyses of their future blank-sky
data, and we find that XRISM will have the leading sensitivity to decaying DM
for masses between roughly 1 to 20 keV, with important implications for sterile
neutrino and heavy axion-like particle DM scenarios.
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