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Relaxing constraints on dark matter annihilation near the supermassive black hole in M87

Mehrdad Phoroutan-Mehr* and Hai-Bo Yu†

  • *Contact author: mphor001@ucr.edu
  • †Contact author: haiboyu@ucr.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 111, 115033 – Published 26 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/g5cn-64kw

Abstract

The supermassive black hole at the center of M87 could redistribute dark matter particles within its sphere of influence, creating a high-density region known as a density spike. This spike can significantly enhance dark matter annihilation signals, making M87 a critical target for deriving stringent constraints on annihilation cross sections. In this work, we demonstrate that these constraints are highly sensitive to the choice of the halo density profile for M87. Motivated by recent kinematic studies of M87, we adopt a cored halo model and find that the constraints on dark matter annihilation are significantly relaxed. Specifically, in the cored halo scenario, the smooth part of the halo overwhelmingly dominates the annihilation signals, whereas the commonly assumed cuspy halo model attributes a major contribution to the spike. We demonstrate this effect using a dark matter model with a light mediator.

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Phys. Rev. D 111, 115033– Published 26 June, 2025
  • Received 2 December 2024
  • Accepted 2 June 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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