The region around the Galactic Center contains a fairly well-characterized excess of GeV-scale gamma rays, which in the past has garnered great interest as a possible signal of dark matter annihilation. However, analyses of the photon statistics of this excess, and the power present in small-scale fluctuations, have provided evidence that the excess instead originates primarily from a population of unresolved point sources, most likely pulsars. I will discuss some possible ways in which this analysis could potentially be biased, leading to a too-strong apparent upper limit on a dark matter contribution, and show preliminary results suggesting that the data could still be consistent with such a component.
The Dark Matter Discussion Group (DMDG) meetings are open to everyone interested in understanding dark matter, and we hope that graduate students, post-docs and faculty will all attend with enthusiasm.