SEARCHING FOR keV STERILE NEUTRINO DARK MATTER WITH X-RAY MICROCALORIMETER SOUNDING ROCKETS

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 814; no. 1; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Figueroa-Feliciano, E., Anderson, A. J., Castro, D., Goldfinger, D. C., Rutherford, J., Eckart, M. E., Kelley, R. L., Kilbourne, C. A., McCammon, D., Morgan, K., Porter, F. S., Szymkowiak, A. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom The American Astronomical Society 20.11.2015
• Subjects: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; CALORIMETERS; Dark matter; Decay; Exposure; GALAXIES; GALAXY CLUSTERS; Galaxy: halo; KEV RANGE 01-10; line: identification; NEUTRINO MIXING ANGLE; Neutrinos; NONLUMINOUS MATTER; PARTICLE DECAY; RESOLUTION; Searching; SENSITIVITY; Sounding rockets; STERILE NEUTRINOS; techniques: spectroscopic; X-RAY SPECTROMETERS; X-rays; X-rays: diffuse background; XMM (spacecraft)
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/814/1/82

ABSTRACT High-resolution X-ray spectrometers onboard suborbital sounding rockets can search for dark matter candidates that produce X-ray lines, such as decaying keV-scale sterile neutrinos. Even with exposure times and effective areas far smaller than XMM-Newton and Chandra observations, high-resolution, wide field of view observations with sounding rockets have competitive sensitivity to decaying sterile neutrinos. We analyze a subset of the 2011 observation by the X-ray Quantum Calorimeter instrument centered on Galactic coordinates with an effective exposure of 106 s, obtaining a limit on the sterile neutrino mixing angle of at 95% CL for a 7 keV neutrino. Better sensitivity at the level of at 95% CL for a 7 keV neutrino is achievable with future 300-s observations of the galactic center by the Micro-X instrument, providing a definitive test of the sterile neutrino interpretation of the reported 3.56 keV excess from galaxy clusters.