Searching for Dark Matter in Messier 33

Abstract

Among various approaches for indirect detection of dark matter, synchrotron emission due to secondary electrons/positrons produced in galactic WIMPs annihilation is raising an increasing interest. In this paper we propose a new method to derive bounds in the mchi - plane by using radio continuum observations of Messier 33, paying particular attention to a low emitting Radio Cavity. The comparison of the expected radio emission due to the galactic dark matter distribution with the observed one provides bounds which are comparable to those obtained from a similar analysis of the Milky Way. Remarkably, the present results are simply based on archival data and thus largely improvable by means of specifically tailored observations. The potentiality of the method compared with more standard searches is discussed by considering the optimistic situation of a vanishing flux (within the experimental sensitivity) measured inside the cavity by a high resolution radio telescope like ALMA. Under the best conditions our technique is able to produce bounds which are comparable to the ones expected after five years of Fermi LAT data taking for an hadronic annihilation channel. Furthermore, it allows to test the hypothesis that space telescopes like Pamela and Fermi LAT are actually observing electrons and positrons due to galactic dark matter annihilation into leptons.