Search for cosmic-ray induced gamma-ray emission from local galaxy clusters using Fermi-LAT data
Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the Universe. Even if clusters are nearly virialized structures, they undergo merging processes, creating merging shocks, and suffer from feedback from galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei; causing complex turbulent motions and amplifying their magnetic fields. These processes act as acceleration mechanisms for the plasma of the intracluster medium (ICM), originating a population of cosmic rays (CRs). Leptonic CRs have long been detected, but we should also expect a CR hadronic population that, through interactions with the ICM, should produce neutral pions that decay into $\gamma$-rays. The detection of diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission from galaxy clusters is one of the long-awaited milestones for the high-energy astroparticle physics community. Still, no unambiguous detection has yet been obtained. In this talk, we will present the results of a combined cluster analysis searching for CR-induced $\gamma$-ray signals, using 16 years of Fermi-LAT data. In our previous work (di Mauro et al. 2023) we obtained from the combined analysis of 49 local galaxy clusters (12 years of data) a hint of signal between 2.5-3$\sigma$. These results are consistent with other works as well, which consistently find a non-vanishing hint of signal, around the detection threshold. In this new work, we use a sample of near, well-known galaxy clusters and develop CR-induced emission templates using well-established X-ray measurements for calibration, assuming self similarity for the members of our sample. To strengthen the robustness of our analysis, we define benchmark models to encapsulate the uncertainties in the spectral and spatial profiles for the CR-induced emission and perform the standard template-fitting analysis using the likelihood ratio test.
DOI: 10.22323/1.501.0815
Institutions: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, University of Turin, University of Nova Gorica, Instituto de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Côte d'Azur, Lagrange Laboratory, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4414530806
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