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Constraining the cosmic abundance of stellar remnants with multi-TeV gamma-rays

David S. Graff·Katherine Freese·Terry Walker·Marc Pinsonneault
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Abstract

If galactic halos contain stellar remnants, the infra-red flux from the remnant progenitors would contribute to the opacity of multi-TeV gamma-rays. The multi-TeV gamma-ray horizon is established to be at a redshift z>0.034 by the observation of the blazar Mkn501 . By requiring that the optical depth due to γγ---> e+ e- be less than one for a source at z=0.034 we limit the cosmological density of stellar remnants, Omega_rm \le (2-4) x 10^-3 h_70^-1 (h_70 is the Hubble constant in units of 70 km sec-1 Mpc-1) and thus strongly constrain stellar remnants as a cosmologically significant source of dark matter.

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David S. Graff, Katherine Freese, Terry Walker, Marc Pinsonneault. 1999-03-11. Constraining the cosmic abundance of stellar remnants with multi-TeV gamma-rays. https://doi.org/10.1086/312243

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