Constraints on the parameters of radiatively decaying dark matter from the dark matter halos of the Milky Way and Ursa Minor

Abstract

Aims:We improve the earlier restrictions on parameters of the warm dark matter (DM) in the form of a sterile neutrinos.
Methods: The results were obtained from not observing the DM decay line in the X-ray spectrum of the Milky Way (using the recent XMM-Newton PN blank sky data). We also present a similar constraint coming from the recent XMM-Newton observation of Ursa Minor - dark, X-ray quiet dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
Results: The new Milky way data improve on (by as much as the order of magnitude at masses ~3.5 keV) existing constraints. Although the observation of Ursa Minor has relatively poor statistics, the constraints are comparable to those recently obtained using observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud or M 31. This confirms a recent proposal that dwarf satellites of the MW are very interesting candidates for the DM search and dedicated studies should be made to this purpose.