Abstract

We present a search for gamma-ray emission from the direction of the newly discovered dwarf galaxy Reticulum II. Using Fermi-LAT Collaboration data, we detect a signal that exceeds expected backgrounds between similar to 2-10 GeV and is consistent with annihilation of dark matter for particle masses less than a few x10(2) GeV. Modeling the background as a Poisson process based on Fermi-LAT diffuse models, and taking into account trial factors, we detect emission with p value less than 9.8 x 10(-5) (>3.7 sigma). An alternative, model-independent treatment of the background reduces the significance, raising the p value to 9.7 x 10(-3) (2.3 sigma). Even in this case, however, Reticulum II has the most significant gamma-ray signal of any known dwarf galaxy. If Reticulum II has a dark-matter halo that is similar to those inferred for other nearby dwarfs, the signal is consistent with the s-wave relic abundance cross section for annihilation.