Speaker
Description
Recent results from Galactic surveys indicate that the Milky Way’s gravitational potential arises from a triaxial, rotated matter distribution, implying that the dark matter (DM) halo may share this shape. In this talk, I will present that the Galactic Center Excess (GCE) observed in Fermi-LAT gamma-ray data is compatible with a triaxial DM halo, including both untilted and tilted configurations relative to the Galactic disk.
Using a large library of diffuse emission models, we have shown that the halo triaxiality and tilt affect the predicted DM annihilation signal along the line of sight, and these variations impact the preferred spatial templates for the GCE. While the GCE’s spectrum and inner cuspiness remain robust, its overall morphology in the gamma-ray data can discriminate among different triaxiality and tilt parameters.
Finally, I will present evidence that the GCE is more consistent with originating from a triaxial, tilted dark matter halo than from a similarly shaped stellar halo.