J M Siegal-Gaskins et al 2009 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 36 055201 doi:10.1088/0954-3899/36/5/055201
J M Siegal-Gaskins1,2, V Pavlidou1,3,5, A V Olinto1, C Brown1 and B D Fields4
Show affiliationsThe identification of point sources poses a great challenge for the high energy community. We present a new approach to evaluate the likelihood of a set of sources being a Galactic population based on the simple assumption that galaxies similar to the Milky Way host comparable populations of gamma-ray emitters. We propose a luminosity constraint on Galactic source populations which complements existing approaches by constraining the abundance and spatial distribution of any objects of Galactic origin, rather than focusing on the properties of a specific candidate emitter. We use M31 as a proxy for the Milky Way and demonstrate this technique by applying it to the unidentified EGRET sources. We find that it is highly improbable that the majority of the unidentified EGRET sources are members of a Galactic halo population (e.g., dark matter subhalos), but that current observations do not provide any constraints on all of these sources being Galactic objects if they reside entirely in the disk and bulge. Applying this method to upcoming observations by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has the potential to exclude association of an even larger number of unidentified sources with any Galactic source class.
98.70.Sa Cosmic rays (including sources, origin, acceleration, and interactions)
98.35.Ln Stellar content and populations; morphology and overall structure
98.35.Hj Spiral arms and galactic disk
Issue 5 (May 2009)
Received 13 December 2008
Published 9 April 2009
J M Siegal-Gaskins et al 2009 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 36 055201
John M. Cannon et al. 2006 ApJ 652 1170
C Domingo-Pardo et al 2008 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 35 014020
Ashoke Sen JHEP05(2005)059
John M. Cannon et al. 2003 The Astronomical Journal 126 2806
H P Trautvetter et al 2008 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 35 014019
J Marganiec et al 2008 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 35 014022
Dale C. Jackson et al. 2004 The Astronomical Journal 128 1219
A Wallner et al 2008 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 35 014018
John A Sidles et al 2009 New J. Phys. 11 065002