Galactic center GeV excess and classification of Fermi-LAT sources with machine learning

Abstract

Excess of gamma rays with a spherical morphology around the Galactic center (GC) observed in the Fermi large area telescope (LAT) data is one of the most intriguing features in the gamma-ray sky. The excess has been interpreted by annihilating dark matter as well as emission from a population of unresolved millisecond pulsars (MSPs). We use a multi-class classification of Fermi-LAT sources with machine learning to study the distribution of MSP-like sources among unassociated Fermi-LAT sources near the GC. We find that the source count distribution of MSP-like sources is comparable with the MSP explanation of the GC excess.