Speaker
Douglas Finkbeiner
(Harvard University)
Description
The strongest WIMP annihilation signals are expected from the inner
Milky Way, but foreground contribution from cosmic-ray interactions
with the gas and radiation field are strongest there as well.
Therefore, indirect detection has been hampered by insufficient
knowledge of the diffuse gamma-ray foregrounds. Improved modeling
requires a 3D map of gas and dust (for $\pi^0$ and brem photons) and a 6D
map of the radiation field (for inverse Compton), along with models of
cosmic-ray density in both protons/nuclei and electrons. Using
observations of 650,000,000 stars from the Pan-STARRS1 survey, we are
currently making a 3D map of the interstellar material and the stellar
luminosity density. I will show our progress so far, and speculate
about what could be done with future data to better understand the
diffuse gamma-ray emission in our galaxy.
Primary author
Douglas Finkbeiner
(Harvard University)
