Searching for Dark Matter in 3.5 Kev Line Mystery

[Chronos]

The 3.5 Kev x ray emission line first reported by Bulbul and Boyarsky in early 2014 continues to surface in the literature. This paper;http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.07217, Searching for decaying dark matter in deep XMM-Newton observation of the Draco dwarf spheroidal, conflicts with the findings of Jeltema and Profumo earlier this month claiming no evidence for any such line [re: http://arxiv.org/abs/1512.01239, Deep XMM Observations of Draco rule out a dark matter decay origin for the 3.5 keV line]. Not unlike previous challenges of the 3.5 Kev line as evidence for dark matter decay, this one too appears weak in the face of closer scrutiny. Now, two years following discovery of the 3.5 Kev emission line, it remains a mystery.

 

[Bystander]

This is getting perilously close to "splitting hairs on cue-balls" don't you think?

 

[ruarimac]

There was a lot of excitement about this paper and some controversy. The data being published originally belonged to another team who are studying this line. The data became available and these two published it seemingly to try to scoop the other team. However the original team claim that this is not the end and this was the worst data set with solar activity causing problems. I don't put much home in the 3.5 keV line but I think we will have to see what the original team come up with before jumping to conclusions.