Dark Matter in X-rays: Revised XMM-Newton Limits and New Constraints from eROSITA

Abstract

We investigate two classes of dark matter (DM) candidates, sub-GeV particles and primordial black holes (PBHs), that can inject low-energy electrons and positrons into the Milky Way and leave observable signatures in the X-ray sky. In the case of sub-GeV DM, annihilation or decay into $e^+e^-$ contributes to the diffuse sea of cosmic-ray (CR) leptons, which can generate bremsstrahlung and inverse Compton (IC) emission on Galactic photon fields, producing a broad spectrum from X-rays to $\gamma$-rays detectable by instruments such as eROSITA and XMM-Newton. For PBHs with masses below $\sim10^{17}$ g, Hawking evaporation similarly yields low-energy $e^\pm$, leading to comparable diffuse emission. Using the first data release from eROSITA and incorporating up-to-date CR propagation and diffusion parameters, we derive new constraints on both scenarios. For sub-GeV DM, we exclude thermally averaged annihilation cross sections in the range $\sim 10^{-27}-10^{-25} \ \mathrm{cm^3/s}$ and decay lifetimes of $\sim 10^{24}-10^{25}$ s for masses between 1 MeV and 1 GeV, with eROSITA outperforming previous X-ray constraints below $\sim$ 30 MeV. For asteroid-mass PBHs, we set new bounds on the DM fraction based on their Hawking-induced emission. Finally, we revisit earlier constraints from XMM-Newton, finding that they were approximately four orders of magnitude too stringent due to the use of the instrument's geometric solid angle rather than its exposure-weighted solid angle. Upon using the exposure-weighted solid angle, we show that the revised XMM-Newton limits are slightly weaker than those from eROSITA.