Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 33: Poster Session II
A 33.23: Poster
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 16:15–18:15, Redoutensaal
Laboratory measurement of "Dark Matter" decay 3.5 keV X-ray line — •Chintan Shah1, Stepan Dobrodey1, Sven Bernitt1, 2, René Steinbrügge1, Liyi Gu3, Jelle Kaastra3, and José Ramón Crespo López-Urrutia1 — 1Max-Plank-Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany — 2Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Germany — 3SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands
Speculations about a possible dark matter origin of observed unidentified x-ray line feature at ∼3.5 keV from galaxy clusters have sparked an incredible interest in the scientific community and given rise to a tide of publications attempting to explain the possible cause for this line [1, 2]. Motivated by this, we have measured the K-shell X-ray spectra of highly ionized bare sulfur ions following charge exchange with gaseous molecules in an electron beam ion trap, as a source of or a contributor to this X-ray line. We produced S16+ and S15+ ions and let them capture electrons in collision with those molecules with the electron beam turned off while recording X-ray spectra. We observed a charge-exchange-induced X-ray feature at the Lyman series limit (3.47 ± 0.06 keV). The inferred X-ray energy is in full agreement with the reported astrophysical observations and supports the proposed novel scenario by Gu [2, 3].[1] E. Bulbul et al., ApJ, 13, 789 (2014)[2] L. Gu et al., A & A, L11, 584 (2015)[3] C. Shah et al., ApJ, 833, 52 (2016).