Dark matter spikes and annihilation radiation from the galactic center
Date
2002-05-13Author
Merritt, David
Milosavljevic, Milos
Verde, Licia
Jimenez, Raul
Metadata
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The annihilation rate of weakly interacting cold dark matter particles at the galactic center could be greatly enhanced by the growth of a density spike around the central supermassive black hole (SBH). Here we discuss the effects of hierarchical mergers on the central spike. Mergers between halos containing SBHs lead to the formation of SBH binaries which transfer energy to the dark matter particles, lowering their density. The predicted flux of annihiliation photons from the galactic center is several orders of magnitude smaller than in models that ignore the effects of SBHs and mergers. Measurement of the annihilation radiation could in principle be used to constrain the merger history of the galaxy.