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The Detection of an Unexplained Emission Line at 3.56 keV. Esra Bulbul Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Maxim Markevitch (NASA/GSFC), Adam Foster ( CfA ), Randall Smith ( CfA ), Mike Loewenstein ( NASA/GSFC) , and Scott Randall ( CfA ).
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The Detection of an Unexplained Emission Line at 3.56 keV Esra Bulbul Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Maxim Markevitch (NASA/GSFC), Adam Foster (CfA), Randall Smith (CfA), Mike Loewenstein (NASA/GSFC), and Scott Randall (CfA)
Line Searches in X-ray Observations of Clusters • Largest gravitationally bound aggregations of hot ICM and DM • Gas is enriched mainly via SN explosions by metals produced by stars in galaxies • Weak emission lines are now being discovered through X-ray spectroscopy 2A 0335+096 Werner et al. (2006)
Why Stacking? • 73 galaxy clusters at their rest frame • Increased S/N • 0.01 < z < 0.35 • Smeared non-source features, e.g. instrumental, background XMM-Newton Stamp Images of 73 Galaxy Clusters
Detection of An Unidentified Emission Line Energy: XMM - MOS Full Sample 6 Ms Flux: 4.0 ± 0.8 x 10-6 phts cm-2 s-1
with an Additional Gaussian Model… XMM - MOS Full Sample 6 Ms
Detected in Independent PN Observations XMM - PN Full Sample 2Ms
Detected in Fainter 69 Clusters XMM - PN Full Sample 1.8 Ms
Detected in Chandra Observations of the Perseus cluster Chandra ACIS-S 883 ks
Detected in XMM Observations of the Perseus cluster XMM-Newton MOS 317 ks
Confirmation • Boyarsky et al. (2014a, b) detected the line • independent XMM OFFSET observations of the Perseus cluster • M31 • Milky Way Normalized Count Rate cnts/keV/s cnts/keV/s Energy
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV Atomic Database Estimates ArXVII DR line at 3.62 keV Based on Ar XVII triplet at 3.12 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV • Emission lines of strong hydrogen- and helium-like ions Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV • Emission lines of strong hydrogen- and helium-like ions • Charge exchange Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV • Emission lines of strong hydrogen- and helium-like ions • Charge exchange • Radiative recombination continuum (RRC) feature Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
Unlikely Astrophysical Scenarios • K XVIII line at 3.52 keV • Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV • Emission lines of strong hydrogen- and helium-like ions • Charge exchange • Radiative recombination continuum (RRC) feature • Any Other Astrophysical Explanations? Atomic Database Estimates of K XVIII line at 3.52 keV and Ar XVII DR line at 3.62 keV
What is the origin? • Could this be a sterile neutrino decay signature? • Warm dark matter candidate sterile neutrinos decay into an active neutrino and emission line • Neutrino Properties • Mass=2Eγ Mass (keV) Mixing angle The diffuse X-ray background (Boyarsky et al. 2006), cluster X-ray (Boyarsky et al. 2006b), BMW (Boyarsky et al. (2007), M31 (Watson et al. 2006), the Tremaine-Gunn bound (Bode et al. 2001), and Fornax dwarf galaxy (Strigari et al. 2006)
Sterile Neutrino vs Astrophysical Line? Astro-H Perseus 1 Ms νbar= 300 km s-1 νDM= 1300 km s-1
Sterile Neutrino Abundance • Sterile neutrinos constitutes ∼19% of the dark matter (Shi & Fuller 1999) • may also be produced by means that do not involve oscillations, such as inflaton or Higgs decay (Kusenko2006; Petraki& Kusenko2008). This detection is consistent with 100% of dark matter composed of sterile neutrinos produced by these mechanisms. • If generated via split seesaw mechanism, this detection indicates that 100% of dark matter composed of sterile neutrinos (Kusenko, Takahashi, & Yanagida 2010).
If you do not want to wait for Astro-H • Alternatives for the Confirmation • Stacked Suzaku and Chandra Observations of large number of galaxy clusters – NASA/ADAP grant (PI: Bulbul) • Deep observations of dwarf spheroidal galaxies • Stacked observations of more Local Group galaxies (cannot nail it if it is a detector artifact) • Deep Chandra observations of the Galactic Center
Limits from Our Detections Mass (keV) 10-11 Mixing angle
Bright Clusters • MOS Observations of the Bright Clusters (Coma, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Centaurus) • Flux: • phtscm-2 s-1 • MOS Observations of the Perseus cluster • phts cm-2 s-1 • MOS Observations of the Perseus cluster(core cut) • phts cm-2 s-1 • not due to a dominant source in the sample, not a background or effective area feature Δχ2 = 17.1 (1 dof) Δχ2 = 15.7 (1 dof)