The Effective Hooperon

Understand

We explore the possibility of explaining a gamma-ray excess in the Galactic Center, originally pointed out by Hooper, collaborators, and other groups, in an effective field theory framework.

• We assume that dark matter annihilation is mediated by particles heavy enough to be integrated out, and that such particles couple to all quark families.
• We calculate the effective coupling required to explain the annihilation signal in the Galactic Center, and compare with bounds from direct detection, collider searches, and the requirement that the dark matter particle make up the appropriate fraction of the universal energy budget.
• We find that only a very small set of operators can explain the gamma-ray excess while being consistent with other constraints.