Strong Support for the Millisecond Pulsar Origin of the Galactic Center GeV Excess

被引:254
作者
Bartels, Richard [1 ]
Krishnamurthy, Suraj [1 ]
Weniger, Christoph [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Amsterdam, GRAPPA Inst, Sci Pk 904, NL-1090 GL Amsterdam, Netherlands
基金
美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
LARGE-AREA TELESCOPE; GAMMA-RAY EMISSION; POPULATION; BUBBLES; CATALOG; GALAXY; SIGNAL;
D O I
10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.051102
中图分类号
O4 [物理学];
学科分类号
0702 ;
摘要
Using gamma-ray data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope, various groups have identified a clear excess emission in the Inner Galaxy, at energies around a few GeV. This excess resembles remarkably well a signal from dark-matter annihilation. One of the most compelling astrophysical interpretations is that the excess is caused by the combined effect of a previously undetected population of dim gamma-ray sources. Because of their spectral similarity, the best candidates are millisecond pulsars. Here, we search for this hypothetical source population, using a novel approach based on wavelet decomposition of the gamma-ray sky and the statistics of Gaussian random fields. Using almost seven years of Fermi-LAT data, we detect a clustering of photons as predicted for the hypothetical population of millisecond pulsar, with a statistical significance of 10.0 sigma. For plausible values of the luminosity function, this population explains 100% of the observed excess emission. We argue that other extragalactic or Galactic sources, a mismodeling of Galactic diffuse emission, or the thick-disk population of pulsars are unlikely to account for this observation.
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页数:5
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