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    Search for Signatures of Dark Matter Annihilation in the Galactic Center with HAWC

    R. Alfaro1, C. Alvarez2, A. Andrés3, E. Anita-Rangel3, M. Araya4, J. C. Arteaga-Velázquez5, D. Avila Rojas3, H. A. Ayala Solares6, R. Babu7 et al. (HAWC Collaboration)

    R. Babu7, P. Bangale6, A. Bernal3, K. S. Caballero-Mora2, T. Capistrán8, A. Carramiñana9, F. Carreón3, S. Casanova10, A. L. Colmenero-Cesar5, U. Cotti5, J. Cotzomi11, S. Coutiño de León12, E. De la Fuente13, D. Depaoli14, P. Desiati15, N. Di Lalla16, R. Diaz Hernandez9, B. L. Dingus17, M. A. DuVernois15, J. C. Díaz-Vélez15, K. Engel18, T. Ergin7, C. Espinoza1, K. Fang15, N. Fraija3, S. Fraija3, J. A. García-González19, F. Garfias3, N. Ghosh20, H. Goksu14, A. Gonzalez Muñoz1, M. M. González3, J. A. González5, J. A. Goodman18, S. Groetsch20, J. Gyeong21, J. P. Harding17, S. Hernández-Cadena22, I. Herzog7, J. Hinton14, D. Huang18, F. Hueyotl-Zahuantitla2, P. Hüntemeyer20, A. Iriarte3, S. Kaufmann23, D. Kieda24, A. Lara25, K. Leavitt20, W. H. Lee3, J. Lee26, H. León Vargas1, J. T. Linnemann7, A. L. Longinotti3, G. Luis-Raya23, K. Malone17, O. Martinez11, J. Martínez-Castro27, H. Martínez-Huerta28, J. A. Matthews29, J. McEnery30, P. Miranda-Romagnoli31, P. E. Mirón-Enriquez3, J. A. Montes3, J. A. Morales-Soto5, E. Moreno11, M. Mostafá6, M. Najafi20, A. Nayerhoda10, L. Nellen32, M. U. Nisa7, R. Noriega-Papaqui31, N. Omodei16, M. Osorio-Archila3, E. Ponce11, Y. Pérez Araujo1, E. G. Pérez-Pérez23, C. D. Rho21, A. Rodriguez Parra5, D. Rosa-González9, M. Roth17, H. Salazar11, D. Salazar-Gallegos7, A. Sandoval1, M. Schneider18, J. Serna-Franco1, A. J. Smith18, Y. Son26, R. W. Springer24, O. Tibolla23, K. Tollefson7, I. Torres9, R. Torres-Escobedo22, R. Turner20, F. Ureña-Mena9, E. Varela11, L. Villaseñor11, X. Wang33, Z. Wang33, I. J. Watson26, H. Wu15, S. Yu34, S. Yun-Cárcamo18, H. Zhou22, and C. de León5 (HAWC Collaboration)

    • 1Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
    • 2Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, México
    • 3Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
    • 4Universidad de Costa Rica, San José 2060, Costa Rica
    • 5Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico
    • 6Temple University, Department of Physics, 1925 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122, USA
    • 7Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
    • 8Università degli Studi di Torino, I-10125 Torino, Italy
    • 9Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Puebla, Mexico
    • 10Institute of Nuclear Physics Polish Academy of Sciences, PL-31342 IFJ-PAN, Krakow, Poland
    • 11Facultad de Ciencias Físico Matemáticas, Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
    • 12Instituto de Física Corpuscular, CSIC, Universitat de València, E-46980, Paterna, Valencia, Spain
    • 13Departamento de Física, Centro Universitario de Ciencias Exactase Ingenierias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico
    • 14Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
    • 15Dept. of Physics and Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
    • 16Department of Physics, Stanford University: Stanford, California 94305, USA
    • 17Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
    • 18Department of Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
    • 19Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada 2501, Monterrey, Nuevo León 64849, Mexico
    • 20Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, USA
    • 21Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 16419, South Korea
    • 22Tsung-Dao Lee Institute & School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Rd, Shanghai, SH 200240, China
    • 23Universidad Politecnica de Pachuca, Pachuca, Hgo, Mexico
    • 24Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
    • 25Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
    • 26University of Seoul, Seoul, South Korea
    • 27Centro de Investigación en Computación, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México City, México
    • 28Departamento de Física y Matemáticas, Universidad de Monterrey, Av. Morones Prieto 4500, San Pedro Garza García 66238, Nuevo León, México
    • 29Dept of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
    • 30NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
    • 31Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, Pachuca, Mexico
    • 32Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
    • 33Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Missouri, USA
    • 34Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

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    Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 191001 – Published 11 May, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/k7wc-d5kn

    Abstract

    We conduct an indirect dark matter (DM) search in the vicinity of the Galactic Center, focusing on a square region within ±9° in Galactic longitude and latutide, using 2865 days of data (∼8  yr) from the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory. We explore DM particles within the weakly interacting massive particles framework with masses from 1 TeV to 10 PeV. Analyzing three annihilation channels (bb¯, τ+τ−, W+W−) and three density profiles (Navarro-Frenk-White, Einasto, Burkert), we find no significant excess and set 95% CL upper limits on the velocity-weighted annihilation cross section. Our results provide the first constraints on DM particles well above 100 TeV using gamma-ray data from the vicinity of the Galactic Center, with the strongest limits O(10−24)  cm3/s, from the τ+τ− channel and the Einasto profile.

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    Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 191001– Published 11 May, 2026
    • Received 7 September 2025
    • Revised 23 December 2025
    • Accepted 4 March 2026
    Article part of CHORUS
    Accepted manuscript will be available starting 11 May, 2027.
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