Capabilities of the Gamma-400 Gamma-ray Telescope for Observation of Electrons and Positrons in the TeV Energy Range

The space-based GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope will measure the fluxes of gamma rays in the energy range from ∼20 MeV to several TeV and cosmic-ray electrons and positrons in the energy range from several GeV to several TeV to investigate the origin of gamma-ray sources, sources and propagation of the Galactic cosmic rays and signatures of dark matter. The instrument consists of an anticoincidence system, a converter-tracker (thickness one radiation length, 1 X₀), a time-of-flight system, an imaging calorimeter (2 X₀) with tracker, a top shower scintillator detector, an electromagnetic calorimeter from CsI(Tl) crystals (16 X₀) with four lateral scintillation detectors and a bottom shower scintillator detector. In this paper, the capability of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope for electron and positron measurements is analyzed. The bulk of cosmic rays are protons, whereas the contribution of the leptonic component to the total flux is ∼10⁻³ at high energy. The special methods for Monte Carlo simulations are proposed to distinguish electrons and positrons from proton background in the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope. The contribution to the proton rejection from each detector system of the instrument is studied separately. The use of the combined information from all detectors allows us to reach a proton rejection of up to ∼1 × 10⁴.

     

Characteristics of the GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope for searching for dark matter signatures

The GAMMA-400 gamma-ray telescope currently under development is designed to measure fluxes of gamma rays and electron-positron cosmic-ray components, which could be associated with the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles, and to survey in detail the celestial sphere in order to search for and investigate discrete gamma-ray sources; to measure the energy spectra of Galactic and extragalactic dif- fuse gamma-ray emissions; and to study gamma-ray bursts and the gamma-ray emissions of active Sun. The GAMMA-400 energy range is 100 MeV to 3000 GeV. The gamma-ray telescope has an angular resolution of ～0.01°, an energy resolution of ～1%, and a proton rejection factor of ～10⁶. The GAMMA-400 will be installed on Russia’s Navigator space platform. Observations are planned to commence in 2018.     

Dark Matter annihilation in small-scale clumps in the Galactic halo

The enhancement of the annihilation signal due to Dark Matter (DM) clumpiness in the Galactic halo, valid for arbitrary DM particles, is described. The mass spectrum of small-scale DM clumps with M≤10³ M _⊙ is calculated with tidal destruction of the clumps taken into account within the hierarchical model of clump structure. The mass distribution of the clumps has a cutoff at M _min due to diffusion of DM particles out of a fluctuation and free streaming. In the case of neutralino (considered as a pure bino) being a DM particle, M _min～10⁸ M _⊙. The evolution of the density profile in a DM clump does not result in singularity, because of formation of the core under the influence of tidal interaction. The number density of clumps as a function of their mass, radius, and distance to the Galactic center is presented.     

Interpretation of the DAMPE 1.4 TeV peak according to the decaying dark matter model

Highly accurate measurements of cosmic ray electron flux by the dark matter particle explorer(DAMPE) ranging between 25 Ge V and 4.6 Te V have recently been published. A sharp peak structure was found at ～ 1.4 Te V. This unexpected peak structure can be reproduced by the annihilation/decay of a nearby dark matter(DM) halo. In this study, we adopt the decaying-DM model to interpret the ～ 1.4 Te V peak. We found that the decay products of the local DM subhalo could contribute to the DMAPE peak with mDM= 3 Te V and τ～ 10~(28) s. We also obtain constraints on DM lifetime and the distance of the local DM subhalo by comparison with DAMPE data.     

Nonlinear increase in the energy input into a medium at the fusion of regularized femtosecond filaments

We consider dark matter consisting of long-living particles with masses 10⁷ GeV ? M ?10¹⁶ GeV decaying through hadronic channel as a source of high-energy neutrino. Using recent data on high-energy neutrino from IceCube and Pierre Auger experiments, we derive the upper-limits on neutrino flux from dark matter decay and constraints on dark matter parameter space. For the dark matter masses of order 10⁸ GeV the constraints derived are slightly stronger than those obtained for the same dark matter model using the highenergy gamma-ray limits.     

Heavy decaying dark matter and large-scale anisotropy of high-energy cosmic rays

We examine the role of the large-scale anisotropy of the high-energy cosmic ray distribution in a search for the heavy decaying dark matter (DM) signal. Using recent anisotropy measurements from the extensive air shower (EAS) observatories, we constrain the lifetime of the DM particles with masses 10⁷ ≤ M _X ≤ 10¹⁶ GeV. These constraints appear to be weaker than that obtained with the high-energy gamma-ray limits. We also estimate the desired precision level for the anisotropy measurements to discern the decaying DM signal marginally allowed by the gamma-ray limits and discuss the prospects of the DM search with the modern EAS facilities.     

Search for strong gravitational lensing effect in the current GRB data of BATSE

Because gamma-ray bursts(GRBs)trace the high-z universe,there is an appreciable probability for a GRB to be gravitational lensed by galaxies in the universe.Herein we consider the gravitational lensing effect of GRBs contributed by the dark matter halos in galaxies.Assuming that all halos have the singular isothermal sphere(SIS)mass profile in the mass range 1010h?1M?M2×1013h?1M?and all GRB samples follow the intrinsic redshift distribution and luminosity function derived from the Swift LGRBs sample,we calculated the gravitational lensing probability in BATSE,Swift/BAT and Fermi/GBM GRBs,respectively.With an derived probability result in BATSE GRBs,we searched for lensed GRB pairs in the BATSE5B GRB Spectral catalog.The search did not find any convincing gravitationally lensed events.We discuss our result and future observations for GRB lensing observation.     

Lithium experiment on solar neutrinos to weight the CNO cycle

The measurement of the flux of beryllium neutrinos with an accuracy of about 10% and CNO neutrinos with an accuracy of 20–30% will enable one to find the flux of pp neutrinos in the source with an accuracy better than 1% using the luminosity constraint. The future experiments on νe^? scattering will enable one to measure with very good accuracy the flux of beryllium and pp neutrinos on the Earth. The ratio of the flux of pp neutrinos on the Earth and in the source will enable one to find with very good accuracy a mixing angle θ_⊙. A lithium detector has high sensitivity to CNO neutrinos and can find the contribution of the CNO cycle to the energy generated in the Sun. This will be a stringent test of the theory of stellar evolution and combined with other experiments will provide a precise determination of the flux of pp neutrinos in the source and a mixing angle θ_⊙. The work on the development of the technology of a lithium experiment is now in progress.     

Proper motion of gamma rays from microhalo sources

I discuss the prospects of detecting the smallest dark matter bound structures present in the Milky Way by searching for the proper motion of gamma-ray sources in the upcoming Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope all sky map. I show that for dark matter particle candidates that couple to photons the detection of at least one gamma-ray microhalo source with proper motion places a constraint on the couplings and mass of the dark matter particle.     

TeV signatures of compact UHECR accelerators

We numerically study particle acceleration by the electric field induced near the horizon of a rotating supermassive (M ～ 10⁹–10¹⁰M_⊙) black hole embedded in the magnetic field B. We find that acceleration of protons to the energy E ～ 10²⁰ eV is possible only at extreme values of M and B. We also find that the acceleration is very inefficient and is accompanied by a broad-band MeV-TeV radiation whose total power exceeds the total power emitted in ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) at least by a factor of 1000. This implies that if O(10) nearby quasar remnants were sources of proton events with an energy E > 10²⁰ eV, then each quasar remnant would, e.g., overshine the Crab Nebula by more than two orders of magnitude in the TeV energy band. Recent TeV observations exclude this possibility. A model in which O(100) sources are situated at 100–1000 Mpc is not ruled out and can be experimentally tested by present TeV γ-ray telescopes. Such a model can explain the observed UHECR flux at moderate energies E ≈ (4–5) × 10¹⁹ eV.     

Scientific tasks and present status of the GAMMA-400 project

The GAMMA-400 telescope is designed to investigate discrete high-energy gamma-ray sources in the energy range of 0.1–3000 GeV, to measure the energy spectra of galactic and extragalactic diffuse gammaray emissions, and to study gamma-ray bursts and gamma-ray emissions from an active Sun. The gamma-ray telescope has an angular resolution of ～0.01°, an energy resolution of ～1%, and a proton rejection factor of ～10⁶. Its special assignment is to measure fluxes of gamma rays, electrons, and positrons that could be associated with the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles.     

Dark matter annihilation in the milky way galaxy: effects of baryonic compression

If the dark matter (DM), which is considered to constitute most of the mass of galaxies, is made of supersymmetric particles, the central region of our Galaxy should emit gamma rays produced by their annihilation. We use detailed models of the Milky Way to make accurate estimates of continuum gamma-ray fluxes. We argue that the most important effect, which was previously neglected, is the compression of the dark matter due to the infall of baryons to the galactic center: it boosts the expected signal by a factor 1000. To illustrate this effect, we computed the expected gamma fluxes in the minimal supergravity scenario. Our models predict that the signal could be detected at high confidence levels by imaging atmospheric C erenkov telescopes assuming that neutralinos make up most of the DM in the Universe.     

A benign property of the ghost mode in massive theory of gravitation

It was shown in the frameworks of massive gravitational theories having in linear approximation mass term \({m^2}\left( {{\varphi ^{\alpha \beta }}{\varphi _{\alpha \beta }} - \frac{1}{2}{\varphi ^2}} \right)\) in the lagrangian, that created some time ago spherically-symmetric static sources should possess inside their light cone not only Yukawa potential, but also nonstationary component. It leads to the long (~ 1/m) period of gravitational evaporation of such sources with the mass loss ? ~ m²M² The magnitude of the flux is c⁴/v⁴ times (с—speed of light, v—velocity of the source particles) bigger then negative gravitational radiation flux corresponding to the ghost scalar mode in the spectrum of such gravitational field, with stabilizing the source.     

Solar neutrino oscillation parameters after KamLAND

We explore the impact of the data from the KamLAND experiment in constraining neutrino mass and mixing angles involved in solar neutrino oscillations. In particular, we discuss the precision with which we can determine the mass squared difference Δm _⊙ ² and the mixing angle θ_⊙ from combined solar and KamLAND data. We show that the precision with which Δm _⊙ ² can be determined improves drastically with the KamLAND data, but the sensitivity of KamLAND to the mixing angle is not as good. We study the effect of enhanced statistics in KamLAND as well as reduced systematics in improving the precision. We also show the effect of the SNO salt data in improving the precision. Finally, we discuss how a dedicated reactor experiment with a baseline of 70 km can improve the θ_⊙ sensitivity by a large amount.     

Violation of light beam reversibility principle in optical media with a random quasi-zero refractive index

The relic abundance of light millicharged particles (MCPs) with the electric charge e′ = 5 × 10^–5 e and with the mass slightly below or above the electron mass is calculated. The abundance depends on the mass ratio η = m _X /m _e and for η < 1 can be high enough to allow MCPs to be the cosmological dark matter or to make a noticeable contribution to it. On the other hand, for η ? 1 the cosmological energy density of MCPs can be quite low, Ω _X h ₀ ² ≈ 0.02 for scalar MCPs, and Ω _X h ₀ ² ≈ 0.001 for spin 1/2 fermions. But even the lowest value of Ω _X h ₀ ² is in tension with several existing limits on the MCP abundances and parameters. However, these limits have been derived under some natural or reasonable assumptions on the properties of MCPs. If these assumptions are relaxed, a patch in the mass–charge plot of MCPs may appear, permitting them to be dark matter particles.     

Investigating halo substructures with annual modulation signature

Galaxy hierarchical formation theories, numerical simulations, the discovery of the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (SagDEG) in 1994 and more recent investigations suggest that the dark halo of the Milky Way can have a rich phenomenology containing non-thermalized substructures. In the present preliminary study, we investigate the case of the SagDEG (the best known satellite galaxy in the Milky Way crossing the solar neighborhood) analyzing the consequences of its dark matter stream contribution to the galactic halo on the basis of the DAMA/NaI annual modulation data. The present analysis is restricted to some WIMP candidates and to some of the astrophysical, nuclear and particle physics scenarios. Other candidates such as e.g. the light bosonic ones we discussed elsewhere, and other non-thermalized substructures are not yet addressed here. PACS 95.35.+d     

Antiproton annihilation in the galaxy as a source of diffuse γ background

A model is developed for antimatter loss by a globular cluster of antimatter stars and its annihilation with a gas of ordinary matter. The flux of photons produced in proton-antiproton annihilation is shown to reproduce the observed γ background measured by the EGRET telescope. The maximum possible number of antimatter stars presumably existing in the Milky Way Galaxy is estimated on the basis of a comparison with observational data.     

Study of Er171 decay by means of an electron-gamma coincidence technique

The decay scheme of Er¹⁷¹ (7.8 h) has been reinvestigated by means of an electron-gamma coincidence spectrometer and a scintillation spectrometer with a transistorized RIDL-400 channel analyser. A careful unfolding of the high energy region of the gamma-ray spectrum revealed the presence of photopeaks at energies of approximately 371, 404, 543, 572, 618, 675, 738, 796, 869, 910 and 962 keV. The existence of 32 transitions in Tm¹⁷¹ was confirmed. Also, it is proved that the 277, 362 keV transitions are in coincidence with the 210 keV and that the 175 keV transition is in coincidence with the 86 keV transition. We revealed the doubt for the existence of the 166, 210, 236, 277 and 419 keV transitions. From coincidence and single counting rates the followingK-conversion coefficients of the 111, 116, 124, 296 and 308 keV transitions were determined to be: α _K (111)=1.561±0.062, α _K (116)=0.699±0.035, α _K (124)=0.608±0.024, α _K (296)=0.0197±0.0010, α _K (308)=0.0183±0.0009, which give the 116, 124 keV transitions an electric quadrupole character; the 111 keV transition a magnetic dipole character withE2/M1 equal 0.4528; and the 296, 308 keV transitions an electric dipole character withM2/E1 equal 0.0058 and 0.0071 respectively.     

Spin and mass of the supermassive black hole in the Galactic Center

A new method for exact determination of the masses and spins of black holes from the observations of quasi-periodic oscillations is discussed. The detected signal from the hot clumps in the accretion plasma must contain modulations with two characteristic frequencies: the frequency of rotation of the black hole event horizon and the frequency of the latitudinal precession of the clump’s orbit. Application of the method of two characteristic frequencies for interpretation of the observed quasi-periodic oscillations from the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center in the X-rays and in the near IR region yields the most exact, for the present, values of the mass and the spin (Kerr parameter) of the Sgr A* black hole: M = (4.2 ± 0.2) × 10⁶ M _⊙ and a = 0.65 ± 0.05. The observed quasi-periodic oscillations with a period of about 11.5 min are identified as the black hole event horizon rotation period and those with a period of about 19 min are identified as the latitudinal oscillation period of the hot spot orbits in the accretion disk.     

Are halos of collisionless cold dark matter collisionless?

We study whether gravitational scattering of halo dark matter particles by subhalos can connect two seemingly independent problems: the abundance of subhalos in dark matter halos and the cuspiness of the halos' inner density profiles. Our numerical experiments indicate that subhalos can cause the collisionless dark matter particles in the centers of main halos to diffuse. Combined with tidal mass loss of the subhalos, this process introduces significant scatter in the inner density profiles and offers an explanation for the range of profiles seen in both observations and cosmological simulations.