Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Dark Matter Constraints from Planck Observations of the Galactic Polarized Synchrotron Emission
Silvia Manconi1, Alessandro Cuoco2,3, Julien Lesgourgues1
1Institute for Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology, RWTH Aachen University, Sommerfeldstraße 16, 52056 Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
Dark matter (DM) annihilation in our Galaxy may produce a linearly polarized synchrotron signal. We use, for the first time, synchrotron polarization to constrain the DM annihilation cross section by comparing theoretical predictions with the latest polarization maps obtained by the Planck satellite collaboration. We find that synchrotron polarization is typically more constraining than synchrotron intensity by about 1 order of magnitude, independently of uncertainties in the modeling of electron and positron propagation, or of the Galactic magnetic field. Our bounds compete with cosmic microwave background limits in the case of leptophilic DM.
Related Concept Videos
Detection of Black Holes
Their closest cousins are neutron stars, which are composed almost entirely of neutrons packed against each other, making them extremely dense. A neutron star has the same mass as the Sun but its diameter is only a few kilometers. Therefore, the escape velocity from their surface is close to the speed of light.
Not until the 1960s, when the first neutron...
Potential Due to a Polarized Object
Interaction of EM Radiation with Matter: Spectroscopy
Electromagnetic Waves in Matter
Consider the electromagnetic wave passing through a dielectric medium. In such a case, Maxwell's equations get modified. In Ampere's law, ε0 , the dielectric permittivity of free space is replaced with ε, the permittivity of dielectric. Also, the vacuum permeability μ0 is replaced by the permeability of the...
Momentum And Radiation Pressure
Gauss's Law: Planar Symmetry

