Milky Way White Dwarfs as Sub-GeV to Multi-TeV Dark Matter Detectors

Understand

We show that Milky Way white dwarfs are excellent targets for dark matter (DM) detection.

• Using Fermi and H.E.S.S.
• Galactic center gamma-ray data, we investigate sensitivity to DM annihilating within white dwarfs into long-lived or boosted mediators and producing detectable gamma rays.
• Depending on the Galactic DM distribution, we set new constraints on the spin-independent scattering cross section down to $10^{-45}-10^{-41}$ cm$^2$ in the sub-GeV DM mass range, which is multiple orders of magnitude stronger than existing limits.