Producing the GeV Galactic Center Excess via Cosmic Ray-Dark Matter Scattering
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| author | Dutta, Bhaskar Goswami, Debopam Kumar, Jason Rai, Mudit Sathyan, Deepak |
| author_facet | Dutta, Bhaskar Goswami, Debopam Kumar, Jason Rai, Mudit Sathyan, Deepak |
| contents | In this work, we propose a novel mechanism for generating gamma rays from the Galactic Center via scattering of cosmic-ray protons off dark matter in the Milky Way halo, in contrast to conventional explanations based on dark matter annihilation. We present two examples of this framework that produce an observable photon signal. In the inelastic dark matter model, cosmic rays up-scatter a lighter dark matter particle, with the subsequent decay of the heavier particle yielding two photons. In the elastic dark matter model, an energetic photon is directly produced in the final state of a 2-to-3 scattering process. We show that, for a range of viable model parameters, this framework provides a fit to the observed Galactic Center gamma-ray excess spectrum comparable to those obtained from dark matter annihilation and millisecond pulsar models. Our results open a new avenue for interpreting gamma-ray observations of the Galactic Center. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_08010 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Producing the GeV Galactic Center Excess via Cosmic Ray-Dark Matter Scattering Dutta, Bhaskar Goswami, Debopam Kumar, Jason Rai, Mudit Sathyan, Deepak High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena In this work, we propose a novel mechanism for generating gamma rays from the Galactic Center via scattering of cosmic-ray protons off dark matter in the Milky Way halo, in contrast to conventional explanations based on dark matter annihilation. We present two examples of this framework that produce an observable photon signal. In the inelastic dark matter model, cosmic rays up-scatter a lighter dark matter particle, with the subsequent decay of the heavier particle yielding two photons. In the elastic dark matter model, an energetic photon is directly produced in the final state of a 2-to-3 scattering process. We show that, for a range of viable model parameters, this framework provides a fit to the observed Galactic Center gamma-ray excess spectrum comparable to those obtained from dark matter annihilation and millisecond pulsar models. Our results open a new avenue for interpreting gamma-ray observations of the Galactic Center. |
| title | Producing the GeV Galactic Center Excess via Cosmic Ray-Dark Matter Scattering |
| topic | High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08010 |