Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Studies of Fermi data indicate an excess of GeV gamma rays around the Galactic center (GC), possibly due to dark matter. I will show that young gamma-ray pulsars can yield a signal with a spectrum, amplitude, and morphology similar to the observed excess below 10 GeV. I will also discuss the contributions of millisecond pulsars and a speculative 100 GeV dark matter particle to this signal. Finally, I will mention a few interesting puzzles that arise from the underlying physics of pulsar emission and evolution.